{"id":193620,"date":"2025-12-19T20:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/193620\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T20:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:01:08","slug":"david-walliams-dropped-by-publisher-over-harassment-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/193620\/","title":{"rendered":"David Walliams dropped by publisher over harassment claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Walliams has been dropped by his publisher over allegations that he \u201charassed\u201d female members of staff.<\/p>\n

Walliams, 54, was accused of inappropriate behaviour towards junior employees, according to The Telegraph.<\/p>\n

The publisher Harper Collins, which is owned by News Corporation, the ultimate parent company of The Times, was said to have paid one individual a five-figure sum before they left the business.<\/p>\n

Walliams has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

Walliams\u2019s departure comes after the exit of Harper Collins\u2019s chief executive, Charlie Redmayne<\/a>, in October. He was replaced by the interim chief, Kate Elton. Redmayne\u2019s departure was not related to that of Walliams.<\/p>\n

A Harper Collins spokesperson confirmed the exit of its leading children\u2019s author.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter careful consideration, and under the leadership of its new CEO, HarperCollins UK has decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe author is aware of this decision. HarperCollins takes employee wellbeing extremely seriously and has processes in place for reporting and investigating concerns. To respect the privacy of individuals we do not comment on internal matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walliams is a hugely successful author whose books, including Billionaire Boy, Gangsta Granny and The Boy in the Dress, have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide and been translated into 55 languages.<\/p>\n

Staff at HarperCollins were reportedly interviewed after an investigation was launched in response to a complaint brought last year by a junior staff member about Walliams\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n

According to the Telegraph, they were told to work in pairs when meeting Walliams and advised against visiting his house. After the investigation ended in 2024, steps were said to have been taken to ensure that the author and some staff were kept apart.<\/p>\n

On Friday Walliams issued a statement through his agent: \u201cDavid has never been informed of any allegations raised against him by Harper Collins. He was not party to any investigation or given any opportunity to answer questions. David strongly denies that he has behaved inappropriately and is taking legal advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not the first time that Walliams has been embroiled in controversy over inappropriate behaviour.<\/p>\n

In 2022 he was caught making \u201cdisrespectful comments\u201d about auditioning contestants during breaks in filming Britain\u2019s Got Talent in January 2020 at the London Palladium.<\/p>\n

A leaked transcript revealed that he had referred to one contestant as a \u201cc***\u201d and said \u201cshe thinks you want to f*** her, but you don\u2019t\u201d about another. The remarks were leaked to The Guardian.<\/p>\n

At the time, Walliams said that he wanted to apologise for the \u201cdisrespectful comments\u201d and that they were part of a private conversation which was \u201cnever intended to be shared\u201d. After this he left his role on the TV programme.<\/p>\n

Fremantle, the talent show\u2019s producer, later apologised and reached an \u201camicable resolution\u201d with Walliams after he sued the company for misuse of private information and breaching data law.<\/p>\n

In June The Times revealed that Walliams gave two Nazi salutes<\/a> during a recording of BBC1\u2019s Would I Lie to You? Christmas special, shocking his fellow panel members and audience members.<\/p>\n

Rob Brydon, the host, reprimanded Walliams after he gave a salute during a story being told by Walliams\u2019s teammate, the Call the Midwife actress Helen George.<\/p>\n

Brydon reminded Walliams that the show went out before the watershed but he went on to made the gesture a second time, embellishing it with a sexual twist.<\/p>\n

TV insiders predicted that the festive episode, which also features Jools Holland and Swarzy Shire, will be dropped from the Boxing Day schedule.<\/p>\n

Pressure is also building on the BBC to drop Little Britain from BBC iPlayer. The comedy sketch show, created by Walliams and Matt Lucas, which ran on the BBC for three series from 2003, is currently available via the on-demand service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Walliams has been dropped by his publisher over allegations that he \u201charassed\u201d female members of staff. Walliams,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-193620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}