For much of his long, remarkably successful career, Jonathan Ross’s life has seemed like one extended joke.
Now 65, the broadcaster is estimated to be worth about £30 million. He hosts a primetime ITV chat show, owns a London mansion and a holiday property in Florida, and has built one of the world’s most extensive comic-book collections — a passion he has never outgrown.
Though his career has survived several controversies and his programmes have rarely delivered spectacular ratings, Ross has remained a defining figure — and, in some circles, the godfather — of British comedy for decades.
His friend Russell Brand put it more crudely in his 2010 memoir, My Booky Wook 2: “Jonathan Ross for 20 years straddled British television and rode it like a horse prostitute.”
With Brand now convicted of rape and sexual assaults, that line has acquired a very different and deeply disturbing meaning.
This week, Ross has made particular efforts to distance himself from Brand, 51, and David Walliams, 55, another former friend accused of grooming and sexually assaulting a teenage fan — allegations Walliams denies. Walliams has not been charged with a criminal offence and is not facing a civil claim, but the Metropolitan Police has announced an investigation into separate allegations of serious sexual offences.
In his 2010 memoir, Russell Brand described Jonathan Ross as having “straddled British television” for two decades in a crude joke that now looks starkly different
Ross has sought to distance himself from David Walliams, 55, who denies allegations that he groomed and sexually assaulted a teenage fan
Under the circumstances, it is understandable that Ross would want to sever any association with either man — and he has done so emphatically.
One particular piece of archive footage has proved especially uncomfortable. Broadcast this week in an ITV investigation into Walliams, it was recorded at the 2004 British Comedy Awards. Ross told the audience: “The Comedy Awards is 15 years old — 15 years old! And like most 15-year-olds, it’s drunk, it’s unpredictable and it’s probably going home with David Walliams.”
The camera then showed Walliams laughing and making a crude V-sign from the audience.
Viewed today, the joke appears to suggest that Ross knew Walliams was interested in teenagers — 22 years before the allegations became public.
Ross rejects that interpretation. In a statement, he said: “I recognise how deeply shocking it is to revisit footage of a joke delivered by me at the Comedy Awards in 2004, in which I make light of the notion of Walliams going home with a 15-year-old.
“The joke was submitted to me by the Comedy Awards scriptwriting team, and I believed the punchline referred to the fact that he had publicly dated younger women, exaggerated for comic effect.”
An ITV investigation revisited Ross’s joke about Walliams “going home” with a 15-year-old at the 2004 Comedy Awards
Walliams was linked in 2004 to Lisa Snowdon, who was a year younger than him; she said they were friends rather than romantically involved
“It was also a tasteless joke that I would not dream of making today about anyone, but that is beside the point.
“Had I had any reason to suspect that it referred to real events, I would not only have refused to use it, I would not have felt comfortable maintaining a personal or professional relationship with him.
“I would also like to think that I would have acted on that knowledge.”
There are, however, questions about that explanation — beginning with the timing.
When the Comedy Awards were broadcast in 2004, Walliams was still at the start of his rise to fame. Little Britain, the sketch series that made him a household name, had first aired the previous year.
Contemporary newspaper reports appear to have linked Walliams with only two women that year: Lisa Snowdon, who was one year younger than him, and Abi Titmuss, who was five years younger. Both have said they were friends rather than romantic partners.
A photograph shown in the documentary depicts Ross at a table while Walliams stands behind 18-year-old Lilly Creightmore with an arm around her shoulder
Brand appeared on the BBC’s Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2006 and later joined Ross on Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz of the Year
Walliams’s first widely reported girlfriend was Australian model Emily Scott, who was 12 years younger than him — but that relationship was reported in 2006, after Ross’s joke had been written and broadcast.
That makes Ross’s reference to Walliams having publicly dated younger women in 2004 difficult to substantiate.
At the time, many viewers may even have assumed Walliams was gay because of his camp persona and his use of homosexual stereotypes. Any suggestion that he was attracted to teenage girls appears to have originated with whoever wrote the joke — and perhaps with information that was not publicly available.
A well-placed source told me this week: “Jonathan will have written the joke. He was very proud of the Comedy Awards scripts and, as far as we were all concerned, he wrote them.”
Regardless of who put the line on paper, Ross may have had reason to suspect that Walliams was attracted to women who were barely adults.
A photograph featured in the documentary shows Ross seated around a table at a film quiz with friends including his wife, Jane, and comedian Ricky Gervais. Walliams is standing behind model Lilly Creightmore, who attended the event with him, with his arm around her shoulder. She was 18 at the time.
Ross and Brand’s careers were placed under intense pressure after lewd voicemails about Andrew Sachs’s 23-year-old granddaughter Georgina Baillie emerged in 2008
Creightmore says the photograph was taken in November 2003, a year before the Comedy Awards.
She later told The Guardian that Walliams approached her after seeing her in an Agent Provocateur underwear advertisement and tried to “coerce” her into having sex with him. She said they did not sleep together, but described his conduct as inappropriate and said she believed he had abused his position.
What Ross knew about Walliams or Brand, when he knew it and how he viewed those friendships remains unclear.
In his statement, Ross said: “I am as horrified by the revelations about David Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand as the rest of the nation.
“There was a time in my life when I was on friendly terms with both men, and during that period I was genuinely unaware of their conduct. My thoughts are with the many, many women who have bravely come forward.”
Ross’s expression of shock must be taken at face value. Few people would claim not to be horrified by the allegations and conviction.
Brand was convicted last week of raping a fan who had travelled to his home in 2009.
The prosecution evidence included testimony from a nurse to whom the woman complained at the time, as well as evidence from her parents and two friends.
The allegations reported against Walliams this week are also serious, although he denies them. Several women approached The Guardian and ITV alleging that he groomed them for sexual contact. Another woman subsequently said he selected her from the audience at Britain’s Got Talent in 2015, asked her for explicit photographs and repeatedly sought sex. She was 24 at the time.
The Metropolitan Police has since said it received several allegations of non-recent serious sexual offences separate from those reported by ITV and The Guardian.
There is no question that both men were close to Jonathan Ross, although his description of having been “on friendly terms” with them appears to soften the nature of those relationships.
Brand’s own account leaves little doubt about his admiration. He was delighted to meet Ross, whom he called “one of my childhood heroes”. Ross also played an important role in Brand’s journey from a late-night role on a Big Brother spin-off to national fame, a BBC Radio 2 programme and a Hollywood career.
“He brought me into his family, gave great advice, and used his shows to launch my career,” Brand wrote appreciatively in 2010.
Brand appeared on the BBC’s Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in May 2006. The pair also appeared together on Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz of the Year in 2007.
In one clip, Ross insists on moving singer Lily Allen away from Brand and Noel Fielding, joking that she should not sit between “two of the best known c***smen in the business”.
As Ross has pointed out, Brand’s boasts about his sex life were a highly visible part of his public persona. Tales of his numerous sexual encounters formed a central element of his comedy and interviews.
Ross appeared to accept that persona. In his 2010 memoir, he described Brand as “the fabulously talented yet sexually insatiable powerhouse that is Russell Brand”.
There is little apparent criticism in that description.
One well-informed figure from the comedy world told me: “He was in awe of Russell’s behaviour. Jonathan was not living like that himself, but he enjoyed the company of people who did. He lived vicariously through it. I believe he thought it was all great fun; it excited him. Of course he knew Russell was having endless casual sex — it was impossible to miss.
“He thought Russell was wonderful. He knew women were pursuing Russell and celebrated it, as did everyone around him. He thought it made him relevant.”
Another source said: “They did not hunt together. Jonathan was not in the room for any of it, but they were friends.
“It feels as though he used Russell Brand for momentum and relevance when he had lost some of that ground. Jonathan was using these younger men to appear cool.
“It was a period of unchecked power for certain people in that world. Being present does not make you complicit, but it does make you part of the culture.”
The source added: “Jonathan was never lecherous. He was devoted to Jane and did much of the childcare for their children because Jane was not interested in it.”
In 2008, Ross and Brand’s careers nearly collapsed after they made actor Andrew Sachs the target of a series of obscene jokes on Brand’s BBC Radio 2 programme. In the scandal that became known as “Sachsgate”, they left offensive voicemails about Brand’s relationship with Sachs’s 23-year-old granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, after Sachs failed to answer a call for an interview.
At one point, Ross shouted: “He f***ed your granddaughter!”
Following a flood of complaints and a £150,000 fine imposed on the BBC, Brand resigned from the station and moved to the United States. Ross was suspended for 12 weeks. Even while facing intense criticism, the two men spoke every day.
The following year, they appeared together on a radio programme. Ross attended Brand’s stag party and his wedding to pop star Katy Perry. Brand later returned to Ross’s chat show in 2013, by then broadcast on ITV.
Ross’s agent, the late Addison Cresswell, negotiated the move to ITV in a deal reportedly worth £6 million a year — then described as the biggest contract in British television history. Cresswell was reportedly seen celebrating by burning cash in a bar.
The friendship appears to have cooled during the Covid pandemic, when Brand embraced religion and right-wing politics before moving to Florida.
Walliams, meanwhile, remained a regular at Ross’s notorious Halloween parties, held at the broadcaster’s family home in Hampstead throughout the 2010s.
He also made frequent appearances on Ross’s chat show. In 2024, the pair were photographed together after dining at Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair, central London.
A friend of both men told me: “The truth is that Walliams and Jonathan were constantly in and out of each other’s homes in Hampstead. It was a close-knit group.
“There was a pattern in which young women would be invited to David Walliams’s house, where famous friends would also be present for dinner.
“Those friendships and connections helped present him as cultured and gentlemanly.”
Broadcaster and author Richard Osman said on Thursday: “I think it is difficult for any man who worked in television in the 1990s and 2000s not to feel that he failed, that he was blind, and that he carries some sense of shame about what happened.
“It is not a sin of commission. It is a sin of omission — of failing to understand that you have to create an environment in which everyone feels safe.”
Another source said: “David Walliams is an odious creep. He creates a terrible atmosphere. It feels deeply unfortunate that Jonathan became caught up in it.
“I have worked with Jonathan for 30 years and he is all surface. He is not a deep book. He enjoys being surrounded by entertaining people and probably asked no questions. He has always loved being the ringmaster at the centre of it all.”
Now, it seems, the circus has come to an end.