HarperCollins staff warned about Walliams’ behaviour – but I was sent to his house alone

Young women working at David Walliams’ former publisher HarperCollins were warned about “creepy” behaviour roughly a decade ago, yet the company waited several years before investigating alleged inappropriate conduct, according to former staff members. Several former employees told The i Paper they believe the firm ignored long-standing concerns about the comedian because it was selling millions of his books, prior to eventually dropping him last year. The allegations will raise further concerns that HarperCollins failed to protect women, as it sold Walliams’ highly profitable children’s titles. One young woman said she was ordered to visit the bestselling children’s author alone at his house. She was in her early twenties at the time, while he was in his mid-forties. He is now 55. A colleague cautioned that he “might like the look of you”. Staff were aware that he had dated a colleague in her mid-twenties. According to a source, he also requested for one of the most junior female members of the team to become his dedicated assistant, despite the importance of the demanding role. A senior former employee believes that some of managers at HarperCollins would “certainly have known about his reputation”. She recalled how Walliams invited a young female worker to a meal, but the woman was advised to decline. A spokesperson for HarperCollins underlined that it had “terminated its publishing relationship with David Walliams”. They said: “We take the safety of our people incredibly seriously and to respect the privacy of individuals we do not comment on employee matters.”Walliams has been revealed as the celebrity who tried to block publication of an investigation by The Guardian and ITV News, in which multiple women accused him of using his fame to prey on them when they were teenagers. He denies the allegations, saying he has not “broken the law” and is “not a sexual predator”. It has been alleged that Walliams used his position to pursue women through HarperCollins, leading to a sexual relationship with a junior member of its staff. Walliams in 2017 with primary school pupils and Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, at an event at Clarence House. He became one of the UK’s bestselling children’s authors (Photo: Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Getty) While The i Paper’s findings do not suggest additional allegations of wrongdoing by Walliams, they shed new light on the culture that surrounded him. The women, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also have wider concerns about the exploitation of junior female workers in the children’s publishing industry by influential and older men. This is a particular worry on book tours, where young female staff sometimes share taxis and dinner tables with well known authors before staying in the same hotels. ‘It’s so bad they sent me to his house’ HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s company News Corp, has sold more than 60 million copies of Walliams’ books around the world since releasing his debut, The Boy in the Dress, in 2008. His work was credited with boosting infant literacy while having a transformative impact on the children’s publishing industry. His sales, totalling more than £100m, are only rivalled this century by JK Rowling and Julia Donaldson. HarperCollins launched an internal inquiry into him in 2023 after claims of harassment, but it is understood that no action was taken. The company announced last December that it would not publish any new books by Walliams, and it has since dropped his existing titles. The publisher’s investigation led to young women at the firm being told to avoid visiting Walliams at his home, and only meet him in pairs, it was reported. Yet multiple sources have now told The i Paper that several years earlier, staff were sharing advice about dealing with any potential unwanted attention from him. Amy*, who was a junior member of the children’s team roughly a decade ago, when she was in her early twenties, recalled how a colleague informally “warned that he could be creepy with young women” and “liked pretty girls”. David Walliams wrote more than 40 children’s books for HarperCollins (Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty) There were “rumours about it all around the office”, she said. It was widely suggested that one of her co-workers, who was in her mid-twenties, had been in a relationship with him, and the woman involved was “really cagey” about what had happened. Despite Walliams’ conduct being an open secret in the office, Amy was “sent to his house by myself” to deliver or collect books. “It’s so bad,” she said. While Walliams was “completely decent and professional” with her, she felt fortunate that a cleaner was also at his property when she arrived. ‘I was excited to be in showbusiness’ Around the same time, an intern in her mid-twenties became involved in a consensual sexual relationship with Walliams after also being sent to his house alone, according to The Guardian and ITV News. It is claimed that the pair originally met during a promotional event at a school and he later sent flowers to her at the office. The woman is now reported to believe that this was an “abuse of power”. Walliams’ lawyers say his advances were made while he was “heartbroken and lonely after his divorce and was hoping to meet someone to spend time with”. Looking back, Amy said she was “sad” to learn what happened to former colleagues and “feels bad” about what they allegedly experienced while simply doing their job. She believes that, like many, she was naive about any potential risks “because I was young, I was a bit excited to be in the showbiz world”. Becca*, who was a more senior member of the HarperCollins team with experience in the children’s department, claimed that “rumours” about Walliams’ conduct spread through the company for many years. HarperCollins staff often had to deliver books to Walliams at home or at events for him to sign (Photo: David M Benett/Getty) She recalled how “he asked someone to go and have dinner with him”, but the woman “was told that she shouldn’t go”. Becca said she was “not at all surprised” by the serious allegations that have since come to light. ‘He was a massive seller for them’ Asked why concerns were not examined earlier and more seriously, Becca said: “You’ve got to understand: he was a huge, absolutely massive seller for them. It was an enormous part of the business. “Unless you can prove he’s done something bad, it’s quite easy if you’re running that division to say: ‘I’ve looked into it, I didn’t find anything. He’s selling a lot of books. If he’s just not a very nice person, we can deal with that’.” She believes his declining sales in recent years made it easier to drop him, although industry data shows HarperCollins still sold nearly 150,000 of his books in the first nine months of this year, bringing in close to £1m. Becca said she was “disappointed” that people did not speak up earlier, but she suspected some senior staff from years gone may “probably feel responsible”. Walliams, seen here in Manchester in 2017, toured the country while promoting his books (Photo: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage) Claire*, who also worked in the children’s books team, said there had “always been gossip about David Walliams” and “everybody knew that he had an eye for pretty young women”. Sometimes it was hard to know what to believe, she said, but he was known to sometimes be “difficult to deal with”. Amy said bosses would go out of their way to keep Walliams happy. She recalled how on one occasion, when he was booked to attend the Hay Festival soon after another promotional event, there was a discussion about paying “so much money for him to get a helicopter ride there, rather than getting a taxi”. Women in publishing ‘required to smile and get on with it’ The publishing insiders worry about how their industry presents opportunities for confident and influential men to exploit young women they work with. The children’s sector in particular is “incredibly female”, said Claire. Another former HarperCollins worker, Daniella*, said publicity and marketing departments are also largely staffed by young women who are “required to smile and get on with it” if authors cause problems. On book tours, these assistants will often be sharing taxis with their clients, eating meals with them and staying in the same hotels. If anything untoward happens, “it’s difficult to be heard… when you’ve got a big author who is absolutely the goose who keeps laying the golden eggs”. Promotional events often provide free alcohol and authors leave in buoyant moods. “They get the attention, everyone’s queuing up for their books, it’s a big ego boost and they love it.” Becca agreed, adding: “I’ve dealt in my career with lots of authors who could be questionable, so it was easy at that time to think they just needed a slap and to be told to behave.” Emily*, another ex-staffer at the HarperCollins children’s unit, said: “It’s a small and, frankly, quite toxic industry. Lots of people who’ve been kicked on their way up then pay it forward.” When HarperCollins dropped Walliams last December, the author’s then agent said that he had “never been informed of any allegations raised against him” by the publisher. They added: “He was not party to any investigation or given any opportunity to answer questions. David strongly denies that he has behaved inappropriately.” *Names changed to protect identities @robhastings.bsky.social