David Walliams has been named as the celebrity who attempted to stop the publication of sexual misconduct allegations made against him. Following a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News, the 55-year-old comedian has been accused of preying upon women and grooming teenage girls as young as 15.
Walliams's legal team, who failed to secure an injunction last week, told the High Court that if the allegations were published, the Britain's Got Talent star would attempt to take his own life. On Tuesday (3 November), however, Mr Justice Nicklin declared that the investigation concerned "matters of substantial public interest" and dismissed the case.
Psychiatric Hospital Stay
According to The Guardian, Walliams was staying in a psychiatric hospital when the judge rejected the injunction. He remains at the facility.
Writing to The Guardian and ITV, the actor denied the allegations, declaring, "Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with." He noted, "I am not a sexual predator. 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."
While Walliams had denied the allegations, the Little Britain star has been accused of inappropriate behaviour in the past, and he's also clashed with a number of stars in the entertainment industry.
Celebrity Clashes
Piers Morgan, who was Walliams' predecessor on Britain's Got Talent, has been one of his most vocal critics. Back in 2019, the broadcaster accused Walliams of liking the "nastiest tweets" posted about him on X. Calling Walliams out on social media, Morgan slammed the comedian as "two-faced", "poisonous", and "cowardly".
Making his disdain for Walliams even clearer, Morgan announced that he was boycotting the National Television Awards in 2020. "There's no point when the same people win the same awards every year. I'd rather stay at home and watch Groundhog Day," he told The Mirror. "And the host David Walliams makes my skin crawl."
Actor Martin Clunes revealed that Walliams had been "very rude" about him in Come Fly With Me. Recalling that Walliams and his comedy partner, Matt Lucas, had initially asked him to appear in a sketch, the ITV star explained that due to a scheduling conflict, he was unable to do so. In the sketch, Walliams and Lucas portrayed two Japanese girls who were huge fans of Clunes. "I remember being very flattered they'd chosen me," the Doc Martin star said. "Then I saw David Walliams talking about it on [The Graham Norton Show], and I was not flattered: he was very rude about me."
Clunes' remark came after Walliams told Norton, "Normally [some Japanese fans are obsessed] with someone like Robbie Williams. We thought, 'Who's the most unlikely person? We thought of Martin Clunes.'"
Other Fallouts
Walliams reportedly clashed with his BGT co-star Simon Cowell, who supposedly cut all contact with him. Three years after Walliams left the talent show for making derogatory and "disrespectful comments" about contestants, the 55-year-old made some scathing remarks about Cowell. Speaking on stage at Advertising Week Europe 2025, the Little Britain star was asked about his multiple wins for Best TV Judge at the National Television Awards. "Simon Cowell never won once," Walliams quipped. "That's all he does is judging. It was a tiny part of my career. For him, it was the focus, and he still couldn't win it."
Sean Lock, whose past comments about Russell Brand resurfaced last week, was also critical of Walliams. Prior to his passing in 2021, the Channel 4 star blasted Walliams during one of his stand-up tours. "Anything sets me off, anything. Those David Walliams books. Urgh, I hate them. Those kids' books he's written. I've gone on strike in my house; I refuse to read them to my kids. I said, 'I'm not reading them,'" Lock said. "My wife says it's because I'm a bitter, twisted, jealous, pathetic husk of a man who's lost all creative spark and is quite happy to bide away his career taking easy cash on panel shows. We're quite honest with each other, you know. But no, there's a reason I don't like his books, because there are a lot of fart gags in his books. The best thing about a fart gag is the noise, isn't it? You don't want to be reading the sound of a fart. But also, we already do those jokes at home. They're the easiest jokes to do with your kids. They're one of the few things that break up the tedious, grinding, repetitive monotony of domestic family life. The endless repetition of task after task after task." Lock added that "any idiot can write a kids' book; it's easy."
