His identity as the celebrity subject to the allegations, which he denies, can be revealed after he lost a High Court challenge against the Guardian and ITN media outlets.

The outlets have accused Walliams, 55, of preying on teenage girls as young as 15 for sexual purposes. Multiple young women accused Walliams of “grooming” them, with allegations dating back to 2003.

One woman described her alleged encounter with Walliams at 15 years old as a “sexual assault”, the media outlets reported.

In response to the investigation, Walliams told journalists: “I am not a sexual predator… I have not broken the law… I am devastated that some of the women I met ten to twenty years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.”

Walliams had sought a permanent injunction to stop the publication of allegations. His legal team had told the High Court publication of the accusations would “highly likely” lead him to kill himself.

His lawyers said he suffered from “very severe mental health problems” and the “drastic effect” publication could have on him was not due to guilt of wrongdoing, but shame from childhood trauma and fear of trial by media.

But Justice Nicklin said in his judgment that suicide was not an “inevitable consequence” and hospital treatment can provide protection.

An injunction would also be a “serious interference” on the rights of media outlets to publish “allegations of serious wrongdoing by a prominent individual” and alleged victims to “communicate their experiences to the public”.

The allegations include accounts from two women who claimed they first met Walliams when they were 15. Now in their 30s, both say he groomed them.

‘Jade’ – not her real name – alleged that Walliams sexually assaulted her when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl at his townhouse in Belsize Park, north London.

She told ITV News: “He lifted my top up and sucked on my breast and then tried to put my hand down his trousers. That’s when I pulled away and said ‘no’. He had an erection at the time.

“I wasn’t ready for sex… I didn’t want to be touched in that way at all. I mean, I was only a 15-year-old.”

She said he messaged her on social media platform MySpace in 2007, where her age was visible on her profile.

Another woman, ‘Alex’, said the Little Britain star contacted her in 2004 when she was 15 years old and studying for her GCSEs. Walliams was 32 at the time.

She had given the star a copy of a script she had written at a fans’ event. By the time she was 17 they were having sex at this London house.

She said she “never said no” and that the three sexual encounters they had were consensual, but said she “felt unable to say anything or have any control in that situation once I was with him”.

Walliams told the publications he believed she was 18 at the time they had sex. His lawyers say the suggestion he groomed Alex is false and has caused him significant distress.

Alex is among the women who said their encounters with Walliams left them traumatised. Most say they were over 18 when they interacted with Walliams.

The investigation also accused Walliams of abusing his position to “pursue” women through the family TV show Britain’s Got Talent – while he was a judge there – and at his former children’s book publisher HarperCollins. He is alleged to have had a sexual relationship with a junior member of staff at the latter.

The three-year investigation includes 30 sources with “first-hand accounts of his conduct”, the Guardian reported.

In a High Court ruling last week, judge Justice Nicklin said the allegations related to Walliams’s “alleged abuse of his power and status”.

The publishers alleged he used these to “establish contact with young women” and seek to engage in “inappropriate sexual activity, including potential criminal activity”, the High Court ruling shows.

Walliams: ‘I am not a sex predator’

However the High Court said its ruling “did not determine whether the allegations, or any of them, were true, and the dismissal of the claim does not amount to approval of any publication the defendants may decide to make”.

In response to the investigation, Walliams told the media outlets: “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.”

He added: “I am not a sexual predator… I have not broken the law… I am devastated that some of the women I met ten to twenty years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.”

Why the injunction was refused

Walliams sought a permanent injunction to block citing Article 2 of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) – which protects the right to life – and Article 8 – which protects the right to respect for private and family life.

Sara Mansoori KC, Walliams’s lead barrister, said he first attempted to kill himself in May after he was contacted by the media outlets to respond to the allegations before publication. Walliams was admitted to hospital that afternoon as a voluntary patient, the court heard.

The court was also told he made a second attempt to take his own life in July after “absconding from a secure hospital”.

Justice Nicklin said Walliams’s claims that he intends to take his own life must be taken seriously and carry “very substantial weight”.

But they did not establish that suicide is inevitable, and he concluded that the evidence establishes that the hospital can provide significant protection.

He also said an injunction “would constitute an exceptionally serious interference” with the rights of media companies to publish the “results of their investigations into allegations of serious wrongdoing by a prominent individual”.

It would also “prevent the sources whose accounts form part of those investigations from communicating their experiences to the public”.

Mansoori previously said her client “has no intention of returning to public life”. Court documents show is currently detained under the Mental Health Act.

Walliams’s book publisher HarperCollins dropped him in December 2025, following an investigation into allegations he had “harassed” young women. He strongly denies allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

The former Britain’s Got Talent judge left the show in 2022 after he apologised for making “disrespectful comments” about auditioning contestants. The comments were made during filming breaks in January 2020 at the London Palladium.

The following year Britain’s Got Talent producer Fremantle apologised and reached an “amicable resolution” with Walliams after the remarks he made while on the show were leaked.

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