David Walliams controversies and allegations, Digi Mart USA News: From comedy superstar to a bestselling children’s author, David Walliams has courted controversy and faced accusations throughout his career. The Surrey-raised performer, who was bullied as a schoolboy for being effeminate, found an outlet in comedy often laced with cruelty, which brought him a level of fame he sought but never appeared fully at ease with.
Walliams has now been accused of using his status to prey on teenage girls and young women for sexual purposes. He denies the allegations and has sought to suppress them through the courts.
Throughout his career he has left a trail of behaviour that some considered offensive and shocking, contributing to his being dropped by his publishers and losing a prime-time television role. Earlier this month, Alton Towers announced that its World of David Walliams attraction, which opened in 2021 and included a Gangsta Granny ride, themed shops and food outlets, would be permanently closed.
Operator Merlin Entertainment said the decision followed its regular end-of-season review of activities.
The UK’s biggest-selling author since JK Rowling, Walliams, who has sold more than £100m worth of children’s books, was abruptly dropped by publisher HarperCollins in December 2025. The decision followed an internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour and harassment towards junior female staff members.
It was reported that some junior staff were kept away from Walliams, while others were advised to work in pairs when meeting him. Walliams denied the allegations, and his spokesperson said he had not been given an opportunity to answer questions in the internal investigation.
Even at the peak of his popularity, Walliams’ novels, influenced by Roald Dahl’s characters, drew controversy. He was accused of racial stereotyping in some stories, and in 2021 HarperCollins announced it would remove a story about a Chinese boy called Brian Wong from future editions of a short story collection.
In December 2025, the BBC, which had previously adapted his novel Gangsta Granny into a Christmas special, said it had no future projects directly involving the performer. The broadcaster did go ahead with his appearance in a festive edition of the panel show Would I Lie To You?
as well as other pre-recorded appearances. Months earlier, Walliams had been criticised after appearing to make two Nazi salutes during a recording of Would I Lie To You?.
The BBC described those scenes as completely unacceptable and did not broadcast them. Walliams did not respond to requests for comment.
Audio leaked in 2022 revealed that Walliams had made sexually explicit and derogatory remarks about a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent at an audition show at the London Palladium two years earlier. A hot mic recorded the TV judge referring to one contestant in an offensive term and saying of another: “She thinks you want to f*** her, but you don’t.” Walliams apologised for the “disrespectful” comments made in private conversations but lost his role on the ITV show.
He then sued producers Fremantle for £1m in lost earnings over the leak of private information. The case was settled out of court, and Walliams received an apology for the breach, which Fremantle called an “amicable solution.” Court filings showed that Walliams had experienced depression and suicidal thoughts as a result of the incident.
For three years in a row, Walliams was guest host at the Presidents Club fundraising dinner in London. The event was widely condemned after the Financial Times published allegations of wide-scale groping and sexual harassment of hostesses employed at the men-only event.
Walliams was not accused of participating in any misconduct. He apologised after the scandal broke and denied any knowledge of sexual harassment at the event during his three years as compère, saying he left immediately after his presenting duties.
In 2018, he had also withdrawn his lot at the Presidents Club charity auction, which offered the chance to name a character in his next children’s book, and some independent bookshops removed his books from sale over his planned involvement.
Along with screen partner Matt Lucas, Walliams became a household name through the BBC sketch show Little Britain, which ran from 2003 to 2008. The show was criticised at the time for its portrayal of disabled characters and its use of homophobic and racist tropes, including an obese Caribbean woman character portrayed in blackface and a portly Thai bride character.
In 2020, Little Britain and another Walliams and Lucas show, Come Fly With Me, were dropped by Netflix, Britbox, Now TV and BBC iPlayer over their use of blackface and portrayal of Black, disabled and gay people. Walliams issued an apology for using blackface to play some of the characters.
A live Little Britain tour in 2006 and 2007 also drew controversy over an audience participation segment in which Walliams, playing a sex offender and children’s entertainer, selected men from the audience, some as young as 16, to play a game called hide the sausage.
