At last – at last – the worst kept secret in celebrity news has been released into the public domain. Spectator readers may not normally have much cause to praise the Guardian. But it is that newspaper’s valiant journalistic efforts that have finally seen allegations emerge about the sexual proclivities of the actor and comedian David Walliams. Allegations that have been discussed privately for years.
Walliams’s television career, and his time in public life, is well and truly over
Walliams had tried extremely hard to stop these stories coming out into the open. Only the defeat last week of a High Court application to grant him lifelong anonymity has enabled these decidedly sordid and distressing allegations about his penchant for teenage girls to be made public.
As ITN releases its own hour-long documentary about these claims, the gist of them reflects Walliams’s strange and apparently contradictory status in public life. He was first the envelope-pushing entertainer of Little Britain, famed for dressing up as a ‘laydee’, donning blackface and other questionable activities that were firmly of their regrettable time. He then pivoted into the hugely lucrative field of children’s writing. The allegations against Walliams revolve around his contact with young girls, some of whom were said only to be 15 when he first got in touch, in an attempt to groom them for sex.
If the Guardian’s investigation is to be believed, Walliams’s modus operandi was to ring up fans that he had met at book signings with the inimitable introduction, ‘Hi, it’s David Walliams. You know, off the telly!’ before taking matters further. This had begun in 2004, with Walliams conducting book signings in character as Lou from Little Britain, and appears to have persisted for years afterwards. He would contact would-be admirers on social media, often via the now-defunct MySpace platform, and shower them with compliments and flattery, in one case asking for them to send increasingly revealing photographs of themselves, before trying to initiate sex with them.
He took care, judging by the Guardian story, to wait until they had turned 16, so that he could skirt illegality, yet the details continue to shock and depress in equal measure. Even when he was enjoying fame and exposure in his role as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent, Walliams, by now well into his forties, was continuing to message teenagers on social media. While he may well not be alone in this behaviour, there is something profoundly unsettling about the fashion in which a wealthy and powerful man openly lusted after far younger women.
The only statement that Walliams has made publicly so far about his actions, via his lawyers, is that he never committed any criminal activities and that any allegations that he committed sexual misconduct are false. However, he admits that, ‘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.’ However, he is also keen to emphasise that, ‘I am not a sexual predator. I have not broken the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met ten to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.’
The industry has already made its feelings towards Walliams clear, with everyone from HarperCollins to Alton Towers divesting themselves of any association with the now disgraced figure. Yet perhaps it is those affected by him who speak most clearly about him. Jade, who first met up with Walliams when she was 15, told the Guardian that, ‘I look at my daughter, who’s not far off [being 15] now, and to think of a 36-year-old man being any way like that with her makes me feel sick’, before saying, ‘It angers me that he is still on the TV, as famous as he is. He used that fame to get women.’
Jade can be assured of one thing, at least; Walliams’s television career, and his time in public life, is well and truly over. Whether his next appearance on TV involves him entering a courtroom to answer charges of sexual misconduct – like his former friend Russell Brand – remains to be seen. But whatever happens, a story that many have wanted to see released into the public domain for decades is now here. About time, too.
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