David Walliams Accused of Sexual Misconduct by 30 People

Thirty people accuse David Walliams, one of Britain's best-known TV personalities and a best-selling children's author, of sexually predatory behavior, according to a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News published Tuesday. The comedian denies all allegations.

The publication followed a Nov. 3 ruling by a British judge that the two news organizations could report the claims. Until then, an injunction — an English legal measure a judge can impose to bar identifying an individual, either temporarily or permanently — had blocked the story.

Walliams fought that court battle for weeks to keep the allegations private. He lost, and the investigation went live.

What does Walliams say?

In a letter sent to news outlets, Walliams conceded some personal failings but rejected the central claims. He said he accepted he "behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with."

His denial was more direct on the misconduct itself: "I am not a sexual predator. I have not broken the law."

That pairing — an admission of thoughtlessness, a rejection of criminal or predatory conduct — now frames his public defense. The letter is his only on-the-record response cited in the reporting so far.

What do the allegations involve?

The Guardian and ITV News investigation rests on accounts from 30 people. They accuse Walliams of abusing his celebrity power to sexually prey on women and to target teenagers, some of whom first met him when they were as young as 15.

The two organizations began working on the investigation in April 2023. That timeline means the reporting ran for well over two years before the injunction fell and the accounts could reach the public.

The alleged pattern, as described by the accusers, centers on the exploitation of fame — the gap between a household-name celebrity and the fans or aspiring performers around him. The claims span conduct toward adult women and toward people who were teenagers at the time of first contact.

Who is David Walliams?

Walliams rose to fame in the 2000s as a star of "Little Britain," the popular BBC sketch show that mocked British archetypes. He later became best known as a children's novelist, a career that made him a fixture of British family life and school bookshelves.

He has also worked as a judge on "Britain's Got Talent." His professional conduct on that show had already drawn scrutiny in recent years, including reports that he made derogatory and sexually explicit remarks about contestants during the recording of an episode.

In other words, Tuesday's allegations did not arrive on a clean slate. They land on a public figure who has spent recent years fielding accusations about how he treats the people around him professionally — now escalated to claims of sexual misconduct spanning years and dozens of accusers.

What does this change for British media and publishing?

The Nov. 3 ruling matters beyond Walliams. It shows the limits of injunctions as a privacy shield when a judge weighs them against a joint investigation backed by 30 sources. For British newsrooms, it is a signal that sustained, multi-outlet reporting can survive a weekslong legal fight.

For Walliams, the practical stakes are commercial as much as reputational. His core audience is children and the parents and schools who buy his books. Whether publishers, broadcasters and licensing partners stand by him will be the next concrete test of how these allegations reshape a career built on family entertainment.