Alex had just gotten home from school and was watching The Simpsons in his room when the phone rang. She distinctly remembers the first thing he said. “Hi, it’s David Walliams. You know, on TV!” It was January 2004. Alex was 15 and studying for his GCSEs. Walliams was 32 and a rising star with sketch comedy series Little Britain.
A few days earlier, Alex attended a fan event where Walliams signed autographs as his character Lou. Wearing a frizzy wig and black leather jacket, he looked up at Alex as his mother took a photo. As she approached Walliams, Alex remembers him saying to her: “You are a very attractive woman. »
With ambitions to become a comedy writer, Alex says she gave him printed copies of scripts she had written. She included a cover letter with his contact information, but she didn’t expect him to contact her.
When he did, she was so excited that immediately after the call she recorded the conversation in youthful scribbles on four sides of an A4 sheet. “David Walliams called me!!” she wrote. “He said he thought my scripts were VERY FUNNY!” She noted how surprised Walliams was when she told him she was still at school, asking: “Okay, so what are you, 15, 16?”
The notes describe how they talked about her exams, as well as the tantalizing possibility of him getting her tickets so she could see a live Little Britain performance. At the end of the call, he told her to stay in touch. He gave her his email address after she assured him she wouldn’t give it to anyone. “He said he trusted me,” she wrote.
Over the next two years, Alex says, she and Walliams spoke on the phone several times and exchanged several emails. She was surprised that a rising star in the comedy world suggested she help. By the time she was 17, she said, they were having sex.
Alex is one of several women who claim Walliams abused his power and celebrity position to prey on them for sexual purposes when they were teenagers or young women, according to an investigation by the Guardian and ITV News. Some, like Alex, say their interactions with Walliams were traumatic and have asked that pseudonyms be used to protect their anonymity.
Most say they were over 18 when they had interactions with Walliams. But a woman the Guardian calls Jade claims that, like Alex, she met him when she was 15. She says that a few weeks after his first contact, he invited her to his home and initiated sexual contact.
The allegations extended to his conduct in the workplace, with multiple sources describing inappropriate behavior towards women both on primetime show Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) and at his publisher HarperCollins.
In September, HarperCollins announced it would no longer publish Walliams’ extensive catalog, after dropping its bestselling author last year. Few reasons have been put forward to explain this seismic movement. The Guardian and ITV News can now reveal that the publisher has severed ties with the star author after concerns were raised about his behavior over several years, including an allegation that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a young female employee and pursued another.
Walliams denies any wrongdoing. Earlier this year, his lawyers took the case to the High Court to try to prevent the allegations from being published. The case was dismissed and the women’s stories can now be revealed.
In a letter to journalists working on the investigation, Walliams wrote: “Looking back, I realize that at times I behaved rashly towards other people with whom I had casual sex.
“I realize that I haven’t always taken people’s feelings into account enough. That’s something I regret. And while an imbalance of power is inevitable when a party is famous, abusing that power is another thing entirely and something I’ve never done.”
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 are now expressing their hurt or anger towards me.”
Journey to success
Walliams, 55, a multi-millionaire and OBE recipient, is one of the UK’s most famous comedians and writers. He built his career on his cheeky and flamboyant persona, which permeated his children’s books, comedies and the decade he spent as a much-loved judge on BGT.
In 2004, Walliams was at the start of his journey to success. His big success was Little Britain, the provocative sketch show he created for BBC Radio 4. with his comedy partner, Matt Lucas. The show, which was later broadcast on television, featured now-infamous characters including Vicky Pollard in a permanent tracksuit and interdependent duo Lou and Andy. In December 2004, he won the top honor at the British Comedy Awards.
At the awards ceremony, Walliams was filmed wearing a black tuxedo, seemingly completely relaxed and having a great time. He burst into laughter when the presenter, talk show host Jonathan Ross, opened the show with a joke explicitly referring to him: “The comedy awards are 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.”
Ross, responding through his lawyers, said he did not write the joke himself.
Alex says she remembers watching the show from her bedroom. Walliams had been in contact several times since the first unexpected call 11 months earlier. In February 2004, he sent a postcard. On the front, Walliams had drawn a love heart over a photo of him and Lucas dressed as Little Britain characters. On the back he had written: “Thanks for your email. Keep in touch. Good luck with your exams and keep writing. David x.”
Alex remembers a few other calls during those first months and several emails.
By: David
To: Alex
February 17, 2004 10:07:24
Alex,
It’s great to hear from you again. I hate typing so let’s talk about it. I lost your number, can you email it to me?
Davidx
They discussed the possibility of her doing an internship, which she said didn’t come to fruition. Walliams continued to encourage her to write, she said. “I was excited,” she recalls. “I can see he was probably trying to make me feel special.”
Afterwards, Walliams’ interest appears to have cooled. The emails sent over a 19-month period up to 2005 give the impression of a schoolgirl desperate for support in her aspiring career. But Walliams rarely responded, and when he did, the responses were curt, even curt.
Alex says it left her confused: “He was the one spending hours on the phone with me, as if telling me and promising me that I could do all this. And then he stopped him. Which was confusing to me because he had been so approachable and talkative before and I just didn’t want to let go of the connection.”
In October 2005, things changed.
Alex emailed about a concert she was planning to go to in London and Walliams responded late at night.
By: David
To: Alex
October 7, 2005 00:36:14
How are you doing? How old are you now? What are you doing? Are you still writing?
Davidx
Alex, who was almost 17 and a half at the time, responded that she was “old enough to go drinking haha” and sent four close-up photos of her face. In two, she is smiling and looks relaxed. The others show her lying on her bed, looking flirtatiously at the camera. Walliams was 34 years old.
The emails continued.
By: David
To: Alex
October 9, 2005 6:08:22 p.m.
How much school do you have left? Is this your last year?
By: Alex
To: David
October 9, 2005 6:37:58 p.m.
well, I’m not going to school anymore, I’m going to college…and yeah, senior year, which is nice
By: David
To: Alex
October 9, 2005 6:40:17 p.m.
By the way, these photos are really beautiful.
By: David
To: Alex
October 9, 2005 7:20:53 p.m.
Do you want to send me some more?
Alex agreed, sending photos of herself with classic 2000s straight hair and dark eyeliner.
By: David
To: Alex
October 9, 2005 7:41:20 p.m.
You are beautiful
Alex thanked Walliams and told him he was “not so bad yourself”.
A few minutes later, she told him she was playing guitar and watching TV before taking a bath. Walliams wrote:
By: David
To: Alex
October 9, 2005 7:51:38 PM
Being in the bath is a good idea.
Alex says that later that evening they spoke on the phone and Walliams suggested they meet up to have sex. She says: “The tone had become massively sexual. »
The following day, Walliams was interviewed on BBC Radio 1. Presenter Scott Mills discussed the comedian’s reputation as a womanizer and asked if his friends were worried about introducing their girlfriends to him. “What, am I some kind of rabid animal?” Walliams replied. “No, I’m a gentleman, but no, I just like the company of women, you see.”
Over the next few months, Alex said, she received calls and texts from Walliams and he asked for more photos. “At first, I just sent pictures of my face,” she says. It progressed to photos of her in underwear, she adds, and then Walliams started “telling me how to pose.” One photo, sent in November 2005, shows the 17-year-old reflected in a mirror, provocatively lowering the waistband of her black bikini. She says she took the photos in her room; in some she was naked.
“I’d never done that before,” Alex recalls. “I could already really feel the imbalance at that point, but I was also young and there was an element of excitement, because of the context of who he was to me.”
Lawyers representing Walliams say he understood she was…
Gn entert
