A former Britain's Got Talent staff member has claimed she overheard David Walliams refer to her with a derogatory name. In the ITV News documentary titled David Walliams: Power and Silence, a 24-year-old employee claims she overheard Walliams referring to her as "the arse", which made her "feel small and almost disembodied".
Staff Member's Account
She said she felt the need to "protect" herself and "avoid" the TV judge entirely while at work. "The one interaction I had with him before I started avoiding him, [was when] he'd been staring at my chest rather than acknowledging me as a person," she added.
Walliams told the investigation he did not recall making the remark or staring at her chest. Another former employee alleged he was once called to Walliams' dressing room and found him wearing only a towel after a shower while two "very young" people were present.
Allegations of Inappropriate Behaviour
The employee claimed there was a widespread perception among staff that Walliams' behaviour could be "sexually inappropriate" and "uncomfortable". He claimed he received a gift card from Walliams which another staff member called "hush money". Walliams denies the allegation and describes it as "smear".
Representatives for the two production companies that make BGT said "neither company had any knowledge of any of the allegations" and that they had "never received any complaints about David Walliams".
Investigation and Denials
Walliams was named as part of an investigation by the Guardian and ITV News on Tuesday (November 10) after he tried to get an injunction to prevent the reporting of allegations against him. Multiple women have accused the comedian of targeting them for sex when they were teenagers during a three-year-long joint investigation.
In the 60-minute full-length documentary, ITV speak to multiple women who say the TV personality and author abused his power as a celebrity to make contact with them when they were teens or young women to pursue them for sexual purposes, including one woman who describes her encounter with Walliams at age 15 as a "sexual assault".
Walliams is also accused of inappropriate conduct and sexual harassment at Britain's Got Talent and at the publisher, HarperCollins. In 2025, he was dropped by his publisher HarperCollins after separate allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women in the workplace. Walliams is one of the UK's most famous authors, known for writing children's books such as Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy.
The former BGT judge denies all allegations of wrongdoing against him, including criminal activity. He says claims that he targeted teenage women - and used his celebrity status to manipulate them to have sex with him - are false. He says he has never engaged in the grooming of young women. Walliams also rejects allegations he behaved inappropriately or sexually harassed anyone in the workplace.
In a statement to the Guardian and ITV News, the comedian said: "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. I am not a sexual predator… I have not broken the law… I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me."
David Walliams: Power and Silence airs Tuesday, November 10 on ITV1 at 10.50pm.
