David Walliams is seen laughing off a joke about him "going home" with teenagers minutes into a new ITV News documentary. The programme, titled David Walliams: Power and Silence, includes throwback footage from the 2004 British Comedy Awards showing host Jonathan Ross opening the ceremony.
In the clip, Ross says: "The comedy awards is 15 years old – 15 years old! And like most 15-year-olds, it's drunk, it's unpredictable and it's probably going home with David Walliams." The camera then pans to a giggling Walliams sitting in the crowd playfully flipping the bird to the camera. Ross, responding through lawyers, has said he did not write the joke himself.
Allegations from multiple women
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, which is available to watch on YouTube, ITV speaks 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".
Workplace conduct claims
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.
One woman, named by ITV and the Guardian as Jade, said she was 15 and Walliams was 36 when they met in August 2007 and he invited her back to his house. She said she considers what she says happened to her there to have been "sexual assault" and "grooming", adding: "It's completely wrong in every way."
Denials and statement
Another woman, named by the news organisations as Alex, alleged she was having sex with Walliams by the time she was 17. Asked how she feels about him now, she said: "I think I was groomed. 100%." Walliams told the publications he believed she was 18 at the time they had sex. His lawyers say the suggestion that he groomed Alex is false and has caused him significant distress.
The former BGT judge denies all allegations of wrongdoing against him, including criminal activity. He says claims 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."
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this documentary, you can find details of help and support at itv.com/helplines. David Walliams: Power and Silence airs Tuesday, November 10 on ITV1 at 10.50pm.
