{"id":243735,"date":"2025-12-21T03:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/243735\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T03:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:59:12","slug":"so-what-did-britains-got-talent-bosses-know-about-david-walliams-behaviour-katie-hind-reveals-he-hosted-teenage-girls-in-his-dressing-room-but-producers-said-nothing-one-fan-later-asked-why-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/243735\/","title":{"rendered":"So what DID Britain’s Got Talent bosses know about David Walliams’ behaviour? KATIE HIND reveals he hosted teenage girls in his dressing room but producers said nothing – one fan later asked, ‘Why did I ever think it was normal?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was one of the nation\u2019s most-watched Saturday night shows \u2013 and he one of its star judges. So when David Walliams<\/a> invited a teenage fan back to his dressing room, behind the scenes on the set of Britain\u2019s Got Talent, to be a VIP guest, it was an offer she could hardly refuse.<\/p>\n

It was May 2015, at the semi-finals of that year\u2019s competition, and the 17-year-old happily posed for selfies with Walliams, then 44, as she and her teenage friend enjoyed backstage cupcakes and fizzy drinks with the comedian and best-selling author.<\/p>\n

For the youngster, the attention she received that day was flattering. After all, what young teen wouldn\u2019t want to be noticed by Walliams among the hordes of other BGT<\/a> fans in the audience?<\/p>\n

But even more surprisingly, given the near 30-year age gap, that day marked the start of a bizarre and enduring friendship between the young woman and the BGT judge that lasted a full year.<\/p>\n

He offered to help her with her career ambitions, phoned her on her 18th birthday, and introduced her to his mother and sister.<\/p>\n

She even spent a night at his \u00a33.5million London home.<\/p>\n

But today \u2013 and, indeed, long before the revelations emerged last week about Walliams being dropped by his publisher HarperCollins over alleged inappropriate behaviour with young women \u2013 she sees their whole friendship very differently.<\/p>\n

Five years on, in 2020, the woman \u2013 who we are choosing not to name \u2013 made a series of social media posts about the time she spent hanging out with Walliams.<\/p>\n

\"David <\/p>\n

David Walliams was a judge on hit Saturday night show Britain’s Got Talent for around ten years<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The comedian and children’s book writer held an odd, year-long relationship with a teenage fan<\/p>\n

She posted a photograph of herself and three other young women, taken backstage at BGT during their semi-final visit to Walliams\u2019s dressing room. But the caption was far from a breathless appreciation of the star by a devoted fan.<\/p>\n

\u2018Why did I ever think it was normal for a 44-year-old male to invite four girls aged 16\/17 into this dressing room without any adults \u2013 just his PA, who would bring refreshments once in a while,\u2019 she wrote. \u2018And the fact that everyone at that TV production company would see it and say NOTHING.\u2019<\/p>\n

In another public post, the woman shared a picture of Walliams standing in a backstage corridor of the ITV studios, and told how he would text her \u2018quite a bit\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018So many people knew about girls getting invited into this particular judge\u2019s dressing room,\u2019 the woman wrote in another post, which appeared on social media the same year.<\/p>\n

At the time, her posts went unreported. Walliams was still a judge on Simon Cowell\u2019s prime-time talent show, and was winning plaudits for his best-selling children\u2019s books, including Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy.<\/p>\n

But last week, allegations emerged \u2013 which are strongly denied by Walliams \u2013 that he behaved inappropriately towards young women working for HarperCollins, the firm which publishes those books.<\/p>\n

It will no longer release any more new titles by Walliams.<\/p>\n

Reportedly, that decision was made after he was accused of \u2018harassing\u2019 junior female employees there, with one reportedly receiving a five-figure payout and later leaving the company.<\/p>\n

It is worth making clear that the young woman we are describing here, who posted online about her friendship with Walliams, has not made similar allegations of wrongdoing against him.<\/p>\n

But with the benefit of hindsight, The Mail on Sunday understands that she increasingly began to feel that the fact he wanted to hang out with a significantly younger fan was inappropriate.<\/p>\n

The woman\u2019s friendship with Walliams began some three months before the BGT semi-final in 2015 when she applied for tickets to one of the show\u2019s auditions in Birmingham via an online forum.<\/p>\n

Once she arrived for the recording at the city\u2019s Hippodrome theatre, she was moved to the front of the audience \u2013 just a few feet behind Walliams and his fellow judges, Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden.<\/p>\n

The woman and Walliams began chatting and, within hours, the former Little Britain star had sought her out on Twitter and started following her, in a move that left the star-struck teen feeling \u2018giddy\u2019 and \u2018almost fainting\u2019.<\/p>\n

But the best, as she then saw it, was yet to come.<\/p>\n

Walliams later contacted her on Twitter to ask her to be a guest at the semi-final of the show, which would be recorded at ITV\u2019s Fountain Studios in Wembley on May 26, 2015. He told her to email his personal assistant, whom he said would make the necessary arrangements for the trip.<\/p>\n

The woman is understood to have initially thought he was joking, but when she realised the offer was genuine she travelled with a friend to London from their home, 100 miles away, booking into a budget hotel so they could stay overnight. A source said: \u2018She told her friends straight away and word soon got round and her invitation became the talk among the friendship group.<\/p>\n

\u2018She couldn\u2019t believe she had stood out like that. They were too young to drink so David offered them any soft drinks they wanted.<\/p>\n

\u2018For the girls it was the most perfect evening. The odd producer would go in and have a chat with everyone.\u2019<\/p>\n

That night, the woman confided to David that she wanted to become a television producer, so he suggested she write a letter to his production company, King Bert, to get work experience.<\/p>\n

A week later, when she had not sent off an application, Walliams messaged her on social media to ask for her mobile phone number so he could chase her up to send it. They were in regular contact from then on, the friend said.<\/p>\n

Walliams invited her back to Birmingham\u2019s BGT auditions in October 2015, and to visit him before the recording at the city\u2019s five-star Hotel du Vin where he was staying.<\/p>\n

She took a male friend, and Walliams treated them to burgers and chips while he was getting his make-up done.<\/p>\n

Sources close to the woman say Walliams told jokes, and after a chocolate ice-cream dessert, they all made their way to the Hippodrome where the woman took selfies of them in the back of the taxi.<\/p>\n

The following month, he invited her to the New Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, which was staging his best-selling children\u2019s book Gangsta Granny.<\/p>\n

Then, in December, Walliams asked for the woman\u2019s address so he could send her a Christmas card that featured a picture of him and his son, Alf, now 12, from his marriage to model Lara Stone, which had ended earlier that year.<\/p>\n

The card was a cartoon, depicting a big polar bear and a smaller one, captioned \u2018Alfred Bear and Papa Bear\u2019.<\/p>\n

The woman later shared an image of the card on social media, writing alongside it: \u2018This is the first Christmas card he sent me.\u2019 Inside the card was a picture of David kissing his son.<\/p>\n

On her 18th birthday, the friend recalls that Walliams surprised her with a phone call where he sang his own rendition of Happy Birthday. Indeed, their friendship was so strong that the woman was introduced to Walliams\u2019s mum Kathleen and sister Julie, she later wrote online.<\/p>\n

In February 2016, she and a friend spent the night at his London home, Supernova Heights, which he bought from Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher in 2005. They ate ravioli and took a sightseeing trip to Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n

She was even treated to a spa afternoon at the luxurious Bulgari hotel in Knightsbridge, where she opted to have her eyebrows and nails done.<\/p>\n

She later posted a picture of herself on a relaxation bed, writing alongside it: \u2018And guess who paid for the spa day?\u2019 The day was capped off with a pizza and movie night at home, where Walliams chose Stanley Kubrick\u2019s 1980 horror classic The Shining.<\/p>\n

The friendship fizzled out naturally during 2016. But by 2020, the woman had begun to look back on it differently and made the series of posts on social media.<\/p>\n

The woman\u2019s friends have suggested the relationship may have been born of loneliness on Walliams\u2019s part. In 2015, he and Stone separated and were granted a quickie divorce that September, citing \u2018unreasonable behaviour\u2019 on Stone\u2019s part \u2013 the same year as the friendship began.<\/p>\n

But whatever the reason, it has left the woman still feeling uncomfortable all these years later.<\/p>\n

Last week, in response to the HarperCollins claims, Walliams\u2019s agent said: \u2018David has never been informed of any allegations raised against him by HarperCollins. He was not party to any investigation or given any opportunity to answer questions.<\/p>\n

\u2018David strongly denies that he has behaved inappropriately and is taking legal advice.\u2019<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Talkback Thames, the production company for Britain\u2019s Got Talent, said: \u2018There is no suggestion of any impropriety on behalf of any of the Talkback Thames team. To insinuate otherwise would be both false and defamatory.\u2019<\/p>\n

Representatives for Mr Walliams were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was one of the nation\u2019s most-watched Saturday night shows \u2013 and he one of its star judges.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[17624,118,8825,18,117,19,17,2770,438],"class_list":{"0":"post-243735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-david-walliams","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-itv","16":"tag-tvshowbiz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115755560060134487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}