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British comedian and children’s author David Walliams has been named by two British news outlets as the anonymous celebrity who tried to stop media outlets publishing claims against him related to alleged grooming and sexual misconduct against some of his young fans.
Walliams, who is one of the UK’s most famous comedians and bestselling children’s authors, was accused of preying on young women for sex in a joint investigation by the Guardian and ITV News in a report published on Tuesday, a week after a High Court judge dismissed his attempts to obtain an injunction to stop publication of the misconduct allegations because of the risk he could take his own life.
Walliams denied the allegations in a detailed statement to the Guardian and ITV News.
The investigation details several first-hand accounts from young women who allege Walliams abused his fame to prey on them sexually when they were teenagers or in their early 20s.
One woman, who accuses Walliams of “sexual assault” and “grooming,” says he contacted her on MySpace when she was 15. They exchanged emails, sometimes from her school email address, before meeting up. The woman said Walliams kissed her, invited her back to his house and initiated sexual contact before she pulled away and he agreed to stop.
The Guardian and ITV report that lawyers for Walliams deny that any grooming or sexual contact with that woman took place.
Another woman told the Guardian and ITV that Walliams contacted her in January 2004 when she was 15, shortly after they met at a fan event. She had given him printouts of comedy scripts she’d written, along with a cover letter that had her contact details on. She said they were having sex by the time she was 17 and that it was consensual but “felt very … pushy.”
“I felt like a prostitute, essentially,” she said.
Walliams’ lawyers deny her account to the Guardian, saying the woman contacted Walliams who believed she was 18 at the time of their alleged encounter.
According to the reporting published in the Guardian, most of the women say they were over 18 when they allegedly had interactions with Walliams.
Walliams denied any wrongdoing in his statement to the Guardian and ITV News. “Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with,” he said.
“I realize I did not always take people’s feelings properly into account. That is something I regret. And whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something that I never did. I am not a sexual predator,” he wrote in a letter to the news organizations.
“I have not broken the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.” CNN has contacted Walliams’ lawyers and representatives for comment.
These allegations were published after a lengthy legal battle in which a court heard that Walliams had attempted suicide and been hospitalized since first being approached for comment about the story in May.
The judge eventually ruled that “the risk of suicide is genuine (and) grave,” but “not inevitable,” and that any injunction would “constitute an exceptionally serious interference” with the media organizations’ rights. Walliams had until Monday to appeal but did not do so.
The Guardian and ITV News investigation also alleges that Walliams engaged in “inappropriate behavior towards women” in the workplace, citing sources at the television show “Britain’s Got Talent,” where he served as a judge from 2012 to 2022, and his publisher HarperCollins. It describes allegations that Walliams inappropriately messaged young female junior employees at “Britain’s Got Talent,” and invited young female fans backstage and into his hotel room.
Walliams’ lawyers told the Guardian and ITV he denied allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Fremantle UK, which produces Britain’s Got Talent, said in a statement to CNN it was “disturbed and concerned by the allegations” against Walliams.
“During his time on the show and in the intervening period, no complaint was ever made regarding his behavior to Fremantle UK,” the company said, adding that it encourages anyone with other allegations to come forward.
At his publisher HarperCollins, according to the Guardian and ITV, Walliams had a sexual relationship with a much younger, junior female employee, which his lawyers describe as “consensual.”
HarperCollins said in December 2025 it would stop publishing any new titles by Walliams, though it did not publicly give a reason. At the time, The Telegraph reported the publisher’s decision followed an investigation into Walliams’ inappropriate behaviour towards young women.
Walliams was also dropped by his literary agent Independent Talent Group after these allegations were published, they told CNN on Tuesday.
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