Guardian and ITV investigation cites 30 sources on Walliams misconduct
A court rejected Walliams's attempt to block publication before the investigation went public on Tuesday, Publishers Marketplace reported.
An investigation by The Guardian and ITV News found 30 first-hand sources who spoke out about children's author and TV presenter David Walliams's sexual misconduct, Publishers Marketplace reported. The investigation was made public on Tuesday, according to The Guardian, after a court rejected a legal attempt by Walliams aimed at preventing publication.
Publishers Marketplace reported that after accusations were first reported, Walliams made two suicide attempts, and his lawyers said if the allegations were published, he would likely do it again.
This is a hard story and I'm not going to dress it up. Thirty first-hand sources is not a rumor, it's an investigation that survived a legal attempt to stop it before publication. Waterstones pulling remaining stock is the kind of industry response that tells you this isn't staying contained to one headline.
I'm not going to speculate about what happens next to Walliams's publishing deals or his shelf space — the material in front of me doesn't say, and I'm not in the business of inventing consequences, however likely they might feel. What I can tell you plainly is this: a court looked at an attempt to block this investigation and let it go forward anyway. That's not nothing. Courts don't wave through 30 first-hand accounts for sport.
The detail about the suicide attempts matters too, and not just as a grim footnote. Walliams's lawyers told the press that publication could lead to another attempt. The investigation ran regardless. That's a serious editorial and legal judgment made by The Guardian and ITV News, and it's worth sitting with rather than skimming past.
For you, the author reading this, there isn't a neat action item buried in these facts — no deadline, no form to fill out, no percentage to check. What there is is a reminder that industry stories like this move fast and get messy, and the responsible thing to do this week is simple: read the original Guardian and ITV reporting yourself before you repeat any of it in your own newsletter, panel, or social post. Don't lean on secondhand summaries, mine included, when the underlying investigation is one click away. If you have author events, anthologies, or shared platforms where Walliams has previously appeared, that's a conversation to have with your organizers directly — but I'm not going to tell you what they'll say, because nobody's told me yet either.
Watch this space. When outlets confirm what, if anything, changes contractually or commercially, I'll bring you the numbers.
From the Coral Wire edition of Fri, Nov 13 2026 · Coral Index 61/100 (Tailwinds building)
Coverage — 2 sources
Every outlet found reporting this story.