David Walliams and Lara Stone's whirlwind romance ended abruptly in 2015, five years after they met. The couple, who married in 2010, divorced after a trial separation, with Walliams citing the Dutch supermodel's "unreasonable behavious" as the reason for the split.
A Whirlwind Romance
Walliams first met Stone at a Chelsea football match in 2009. At the time, Stone was 25 and Walliams was 38. The Dutch supermodel previously said that it was love at first sight... for him.
The couple moved quickly, becoming engaged just months later in 2010. Walliams reportedly proposed with a £100k vintage 1910 Tiffany ring he hid in a cheeseburger. He chose this unusual method because Lara always took off the top of a burger to remove the salad, and he thought it would be a funny way to pop the question.
At the time, Walliams commented: "It's true, we're engaged and blissfully happy. I wasn't planning to make a public announcement because I am not a royal - yet." Later, Lara described Walliams as "a bit mean" but "in a good way" and said she was "madly in love" with him in an interview with Interview magazine.
The Wedding and Family Life
The couple married just four months later at London's Claridge's Hotel in May 2010, with James Corden and Alan Carr among the guests. They welcomed their son Alfred in 2013.
A year later, Lara shared her happiness at being a mum in an interview with The Telegraph. "I have a house, a husband, a good job, a beautiful baby - at the moment I don't have anything else to wish for," she said.
The Marriage Begins to Crumble
However, things began to grow sour in 2014, with sources claiming the couple had started to "drift apart". They were last seen publicly together at Elton John and David Furnish's wedding that year on December 21.
In March 2015, it was reported that the couple were undergoing a trial separation. A source at the time told The Sun that Walliams "didn't want a divorce" and wanted to "work things out". But it was claimed that Lara had made up her mind and that "David accepted [it] for the sake of their son."
Filing for divorce, Walliams cited Stone's "unreasonable behavious" as the reason for the split. A friend of Walliams told the Mail at the time: "He is just deeply unhappy, underneath it all. If you are that unhappy, I don't know how you can sustain a marriage." They added: "Lara had had enough."
Recent Allegations
Walliams was recently named as the celebrity who tried to stop two media organisations from publishing allegations against him after losing his high court challenge. An investigation by ITV News and the Guardian claims that he abused his power and position for sexual purposes on multiple occasions with teenagers and other women.
In response, Walliams denies any wrongdoing and said he's 'devastated' by the claims. He sent a letter to journalists working on this investigation and wrote: "Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with. I realise 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."
He added: "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."
