Like many 16-year-old girls, Kate* was thrilled to be in the audience for Britain’s Got Talent. Her tickets had come from one of the programme’s celebrity judges.
The teenager had recently been contacted on Instagram by David Walliams, then 48. In 2017, the comedian arranged for Kate and her mother to attend a live recording of the show – and invited them to meet him backstage.
Nine years later, Kate, now 25 and a reality television personality, says she can see ‘how creepy the full thing was’. She has spoken about the encounter publicly for the first time in an interview with the Daily Mail.
Kate and her mother spoke to us after Walliams was accused of targeting young teenagers and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl following an investigation by The Guardian and ITN. He denies the allegations. The comedian attempted to stop their publication through a High Court injunction, arguing that being named could lead him to take his own life. The application was rejected on Tuesday.
Why, they ask, would a highly successful man in his late 40s approach a 16-year-old he had never met?
Walliams first contacted Kate through Instagram in April 2017. He followed her without warning and liked numerous photographs, including school selfies and pictures of her with friends.
David Walliams arranged seats for a 16-year-old girl at a live Britain’s Got Talent recording in 2017
The comedian, then a judge on the programme, invited Kate and her mother backstage after first contacting her on Instagram
Kate was at school when she first noticed Walliams’s name appear in her phone notifications. At the time, she was in Year 11 and felt excited that such a well-known celebrity had noticed her.
Today, amid allegations concerning Walliams’s relationships with young girls, she views that online contact very differently.
‘It was evidently clear on my social media that I was young and a school student,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘David followed me out of the blue one day. I didn’t follow him and hadn’t ever interacted with his page.
‘When I saw the account follow me I remember thinking it was off and I noticed he followed quite a lot of young women.’
Walliams was single at the time, having split from model Lara Stone in March 2015 after five years of marriage.
Walliams was accused of targeting young teenagers and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl after an investigation by The Guardian and ITN. He denies any wrongdoing
Britain’s Got Talent bosses investigated Walliams’s conduct after being told he had taken teenage girls into his dressing room
Walliams remained at the peak of his career, despite several misconduct allegations in 2016. One came from an employee at his publisher, HarperCollins, who claimed the best-selling children’s author had developed a reputation as a ‘creep’ for seeking female staff members’ email addresses and phone numbers.
The Little Britain star received an OBE in 2017 for ‘services to the arts’ and continued to attract fans with his humour and flamboyant public persona. To some, he was regarded as one of the most eligible single men in showbusiness.
Although she had reservations, Kate eventually asked Walliams for Britain’s Got Talent tickets in May after he had liked several of her Instagram posts.
Audience tickets for the talent show are free but highly sought after. Walliams arranged for his personal assistant to send two tickets to a live recording as a birthday gift for Kate’s mother.
When Kate and her mother arrived at Fountain Studios in Wembley, north-west London, they were seated among Walliams’s guests. Kate recalls that the section contained a large number of ‘young women’.
Kate’s mother remembers talking to another audience member who said she had come to see Walliams rather than watch the programme.
‘It was like a competition to the other girls, like they were bragging about being there for David,’ Kate’s mother said.
Before filming began, a producer moved Kate and her mother from their allocated seats to the front row, saying they wanted Kate to appear on camera. Their original seats were left vacant.
Kate’s mother said: ‘I could see David kept looking for Kate. He was confused that her seat was empty. That was strange in itself.’
During the recording, Walliams sat alongside long-serving judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon. He went on to win the National Television Award for Best TV Judge four times for his role on BGT.
After filming ended, Kate and her mother were invited to meet Walliams in his dressing room.
However, in a moment Kate’s mother now views as unsettling, a security guard employed by the show advised her not to attend the comedian’s ‘afterparty’. His warning suggested there may already have been wider concern about Walliams’s alleged conduct involving young women.
‘Do not go there,’ the security guard told Kate’s mother firmly, shaking his head when she mentioned their plans.
He offered no explanation, but Kate’s mother decided to take her daughter home immediately.
‘Something I thought was so innocent just made me feel very weird,’ she told the Daily Mail.
Several years later, Britain’s Got Talent executives investigated Walliams’s behaviour after being told that the star, then 55, had been taking teenage girls into his dressing room.
The inquiry did not uncover evidence of wrongdoing, and those involved were unable to establish how Walliams was selecting the young women invited to the show.
After the recording, Kate sent Walliams a message thanking him for the tickets: ‘Thanks so much for today … really enjoyed the show. We were moved away from our original seats and to the front. Really loved it x.’
Walliams replied: ‘My pleasure. You were meant to come to my dressing room before. I wanted to meet you properly. Xxx.’
Kate answered: ‘Oh I’m so sad that didn’t happen! No one told me … I would’ve loved that!’
He responded: ‘So sorry. All the guests were meant to come backstage before.’
After beginning her own television career, Kate says she learned that BGT producers had barred female runners – junior production staff working on film and television sets – from working with Walliams. She described the policy as an open secret within the industry.
‘A runner that I previously worked alongside, who was freelance, also worked on Britain’s Got Talent. He made me aware that David wasn’t allowed female runners towards the end of working on the show because of the way he acted towards them,’ said Kate.
Walliams later stopped following Kate on Instagram as her profile grew through reality television. The two have never met face-to-face.
Walliams departed Britain’s Got Talent in November 2022 after audio recordings emerged of him making disparaging comments about contestants when he believed the microphones were not recording.
In the footage, Walliams used misogynistic language and described one female contestant as: ‘Like the slightly boring girl you meet in the pub that thinks you want to f*** them, but you don’t’.
Walliams apologised publicly for the remarks before suing production company Fremantle for ‘misuse of private information’ and ‘breaching data laws’. Fremantle apologised, and Walliams is believed to have received £5million in compensation.
Walliams denies the allegations reported by The Guardian and ITN and has not been charged with a criminal offence. He will now be hoping that no further women come forward with claims similar to Kate’s.
*Names have been changed.