‘Why did I ever think it was “normal” for a 44-year-old male celeb to invite four girls aged 16-17 to his dressing room…?’ Schoolgirl recalls weird, backstage Britain’s Got Talent experience with David Walliams

A woman who was invited by David Walliams into his dressing room while she was still a schoolgirl has taken to the internet to question the lack of safeguarding surrounding the experience.

‘Who thought it was normal for a 44-year-old man to hang out with 16- to 17-year-olds?’ she posted to Instagram, alongside photos of herself and three other young  fans taking selfies from inside Walliams’ Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) dressing room when he was a judge on the show.

The then 17-year-old was one of four teenaged girls invited by Walliams to visit him in the intimate behind-the-scenes setting while he was filming the talent show.

Accompanying the photos was the caption: ‘Why did I ever think it was “normal” for a 44yr old male celebrity to invite four girls aged 16/17 into his dressing room without any adults present – just his PA, who would bring refreshments once in a while.

‘And the fact everyone at that TV production company would see it and say NOTHING.’

She showed another photo of a card Walliams had apparently sent her, which featured a photo of him with his son, signed ‘David X’. She added: ‘I also met his mum and sister.’

Alongside the photos was a screenshot of Walliams posing backstage, captioned: ‘You are my number one!!! Me backstage’.

It’s thought the then 17-year-old girl was personally invited to BGT after Walliams privately messaged her on social media and then arranged for his PA to send her a pair of tickets.

It’s unclear exactly when the meeting took place – Walliams was a judge on the programme for a decade until he was fired in 2022 for vile remarks about a contestant – but it’s thought to have been some time around 2015 to 2017.

This was when Walliams was in the process of divorcing his wife, supermodel Lara Stone, because the girl added that she had provided a shoulder to cry on for the middle-aged comic, despite her young age.

She wrote: ‘Another thing I wanna add. Yes I had his personal number. We would text quite a bit. This is also whilst he was going through his divorce with Lara.

‘He would express his upset about the situation. I would COMFORT HIM. I WAS 18, COMFORTING A 45 YEAR OLD.’

And her account does appear to corroborate claims previously contested by Walliams that he had hosted unaccompanied young girls in his dressing room.

This was made in The Guardian/ITV investigation into Walliams by Abby Tomlinson, who now works for the Labour Party but was then a 17-year-old Walliams fan.

Ms Tomlinson also said she attended BGT after getting private messages from Walliams – in 2015.

She took a 13-year-old girl friend with her as her ‘plus one’ to the show and when they arrived, they were shown backstage to Walliams’ dressing room, where two other girls, 16 and 17, were waiting, she said.

Lawyers for Walliams disputed Ms Tomlinson’s claim that she and other young girls had been left alone with Walliams without another adult present.

But Ms Tomlinson was adamant on this point, telling ITV: ‘It was absolutely the case, the door was shut and we were alone with him.’

And she added: ‘He’s the sort of person who had obviously a lot of access to young women, teenage girls.’

It’s unclear if the photos here show the same meeting Ms Tomlinson described – the two accounts appear to chime – or whether there was more than one episode of Walliams with girls and no chaperone.