David Walliams has experienced a turbulent 2025, faced with several controversies and allegations of misconduct.
The BBC made a statement about his future with the station, saying in a statement provided to Metro: ‘While we’re not making any changes to the festive schedules, we have no future projects directly involving David Walliams.’
Most recently, he was dropped by his publisher, Harper Collins, after allegations that he ‘harassed’ junior female employees, which Walliams has strongly denied.
It has also been confirmed that earlier this year, he stopped being an ambassador for The Children’s Trust.
A spokesperson told the Mail: ‘After a review of our ambassador programme earlier in the year, David Walliams is no longer an ambassador of The Children’s Trust.’
Get personalised updates on Britain's Got Talent
Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro’s TV Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we’ll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you.
The controversies have seen Walliams go from a beloved household name and regular face on our TV screens to an uncomfortable topic, marred with sensitive themes.
Comedic breakthrough
Walliams’ career began in the 90s when he performed Mark Gatiss’ Doctor Who audio play, Phantasmagoria, in 1999.
In 2005, he joined the likes of Simon Pegg, Lucy Davis, and Lauren Laverne in a video for Charlotte Hatherley’s single Bastardo, and in the same year, presented the documentary David Walliams: My Life with James Bond.
But his breakthrough came with Little Britain, his comedy series with Matt Lucas that began in 2000 as a radio series.
Little Britain, which began in 2003, propelled Walliams and Lucas to stardom
TV and film success
Following his time on Little Britain, Walliams nabbed several high-profile gigs that saw him reach stratospheric heights of fame.
It was around this time that he married Lara Stone, a Dutch model, but the couple divorced in 2015 after being married for just five years.
In 2012, he joined the judging panel of Britain’s Got Talent alongside Alesha Dixon and guest-judge Carmen Electra, replacing short-term judges Michael McIntyre and David Hasselhoff.
Around the same time, Walliams joined the sports-based comedy quiz series A League of Their Own, appearing in eight episode between 2012 and 2016.
Taking his success on Britain’s Got Talent global, he began a brief stint as a judge on Australia’s Got Talent – he was replaced by Bruno Tonioli on the British version.
In 2015, he brought back one of his classic Little Britain characters when he appeared in Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day as Lou Todd alongside Stephen Hawking.
In the same year, he launched his BBC sketch show Walliams and Friend, which also starred Joanna Lumley and Morgana Robinson.
He presented the Royal Variety performance a year later, a Christmas special episode of Blanety Blank, and also joined the cast of the rebooted children’s TV series Teletubbies.
In 2019, Walliams became the host for the National Television Awards, taking over from Dermot O’Leary when he stepped down after 10 years.
He has won numerous accolades across his career, including a Pride of Britain Award in 2006 for most influential public figure. This came after raising £1.5million for Sport Relief by swimming the English Channel.
At the National Television Awards in 2012, Walliams won the landmark achievement award for his work in TV and his accomplishments in aid of Sport Relief.
He has also received awards for his children’s books, including the Specsavers children’s book of the year three years running between 2012 and 2014.
Between 2015 and 2019 he was recognised three times at the National Television Awards for being the best judge on reality TV that year.
What are the allegations against David Walliams?
Walliams is said to have faced accusations of ‘harassing’ junior female employees at the publishers Harper Collins.
The allegations were investigated by the company. It is understood that Walliams did not know about the Harper Collins investigation, but has since been dropped by the publisher.
A Harper Collins employee had reportedly received a five-figure payout after raising concerns about his behaviour, and subsequently left the company – this is according to reports in the The Telegraph.
Walliams ‘strongly denies’ these allegations, according to a statement via a spokesperson.
Cracking the publishing world
Walliams wrote his first book in 2008 after signing a deal with the publisher and has gone on to become one of the UK’s highest-earning authors.
A number of his titles, including Gangsta Granny and Mr Stink, have also been made into films for the BBC, while the books have been included in McDonald’s Happy Meals giveaways.
It was estimated that Walliams had sold £100million worth of books for Harper Collins, as of 2019.
It was then announced he had been dropped from Harper Collins, with a spokesperson telling Metro: ‘After careful consideration, and under the leadership of its new CEO, HarperCollins UK has decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams.’
A statement to The Telegraph additionally noted: ‘The author is aware of this decision. HarperCollins takes employee well-being extremely seriously and has processes in place for reporting and investigating concerns.
‘To respect the privacy of individuals, we do not comment on internal matters.’
A spokesperson for Walliams told PA: ‘David has never been informed of any allegations raised against him by Harper Collins.
‘He was not party to any investigation or given any opportunity to answer questions. David strongly denies that he has behaved inappropriately and is taking legal advice.’
A string of controversies
Little Britain
Little Britain has faced mounting criticism over the years, with fans branding certain characters ‘explicitly racist’ and slamming the use of blackface.
The pair apologised for the latter in a statement on Twitter in 2020 where they said: ‘Matt & I have both spoken publicly in recent years of our regret that we played characters of other races.
‘Once again we want to make it clear that it was wrong & we are very sorry.’
Matt Lucas and David Walliams have previously admitted the show could be problematic, and would be very different if it were made today.
‘Basically, I wouldn’t make that show now. It would upset people. We made a more cruel kind of comedy than I’d do now,’ he told Big Issue.
David Walliams said of the series in 2018: You’d definitely do it differently because it’s a different time now,’ pointing out that Little Britain first came together nearly 20 years ago as it initially started on radio.
He said: ‘It’s hard to say specifically how it would be different. There’s all kinds of tolerances that change. People understand people’s predicaments more now. Maybe it’s, “we see this differently, we’ve got more information,” and it would be a different type of joke.’
Britain’s Got Talent
In 2022, the BGT judge was removed from his role on the show after leaked recordings showed him making offensive remarks about the contestants.
The leaked transcript, picked up on a hot mic, revealed Walliams called one auditioning contestant a ‘c**’ and said of another: ‘She thinks you want to f*** her, but you don’t’.
He later apologised for his offensive comments, stating: ‘I would like to apologise to the people I made disrespectful comments about during breaks in filming for Britain’s Got Talent in 2020.
‘These were private conversations and – like most conversations with friends – were never intended to be shared. Nevertheless, I am sorry.’
He also reached a settlement with the production company Fremantle after suing them for misuse of private information and breaching data laws.
‘Racist’ and ‘fat-shaming’ books
David Walliams’ best-selling children’s books have been accused of ‘racism and fat-shaming.’
Food writer Jack Monroe posted a lengthy Twitter thread on X dissecting the pages and the themes within.
The writer and activist drew comparisons between the character Ping Pong in The World’s Worst Parents books and Ting Tong from David’s popular BBC series Little Britain, which also starred Matt Lucas.
In 2021, a story titled Brian Wong, Who Was Never, Ever Wrong, about a Chinese boy, was removed from Walliams’ book The World’s Worst Children series after concerns over racial stereotyping.
Raj, a shopkeeper who features in many of Walliams’ books, has also been criticised widely as a lazy stereotype.
Would I Lie To You Christmas special
The BBC is still planning to air the controversial David Walliams Would I Lie To You Christmas special on Boxing Day.
During filming for the show in June, he was filmed doing two Nazi salutes, which the BBC and the production company, Banijay UK, apologised for.
The salutes occurred while Walliams’s teammate – Call the Midwife actress Helen George – who was recalling the time she sprained her wrist during the Strictly Come Dancing tour in 2015 ‘from waving too much’.
As she tried to convince David Mitchell’s team that the anecdote was true, she started re-enacting the waving, which is when Walliams joined in with his own exaggerated flailing, resulting in the Nazi salute.
After being reprimanded by the host, Rob Brydon, the filming moved on but as lewd jokes were swapped, Walliams then repeated the action but this time with a ‘sexual twist’.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
