David Walliams might be leaving Britain’s Got Talent (Picture: Dymond/Thames/Syco/REX/Shutterstock)
David Walliams’ Britain’s Got Talent future is ‘up in the air’ as rumours start swirling that the judge has quit after a decade on the show.
Earlier this month the best-selling children’s author and Little Britain TV comedy star apologised after a leaked recording caught him calling an elderly performer on the talent show the C-word three times.
According to a transcript leaked to the Guardian, David also said of a woman hopeful: ‘She’s like the slightly boring girl you meet in the pub that thinks you want to f*** them but you don’t.’
His slurs were picked up by a microphone used to record chats between him and fellow judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon at the London Palladium in January 2020.
Soon after, David issued a statement and said he would ‘like to apologise to the people I made disrespectful comments about during breaks in filming for Britain’s Got Talent in 2020’.
‘These were private conversations and – like most conversations with friends – were never intended to be shared. Nevertheless, I am sorry.’
While it is being reported that he’s now ‘quit’, a source has said that a decision was yet to be made about his future on the show.
‘It’s still very much up in the air at the moment on whether David is going to take part in next year’s show. No decision, though, has been made as yet,’ they said.
However a spokesperson for Britain’s Got Talent told Metro.co.uk that ‘the judging panel for Britain’s Got Talent 2023 will be announced in due course.’
The comments come after a source told The Sun that David hadn’t ‘taken the decision lightly’ to leave, but that he ‘feels like it is time to move on’.
On Wednesday Simon refused to be drawn on whether David would be returning.
‘Ask me in a few weeks,’ he said in an interview with The Daily Star.
When probed about Walliams’ behaviour, he continued: ‘Can we not go there? If you don’t mind.’
ITV previously said that they did ‘not condone the language, and have spoken to the producers’.
‘Duty of care towards all participants on our programmes is always of paramount importance,’ they said.
The reality series was axed in 2021 due to the pandemic, but returned earlier this year.
Despite being on the show since it started in 2007, Amanda put Simon on the spot this week after questioning whether she would be returning next year.
While she said she was currently in negotiations, he reportedly said the ‘deal is done’.
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The judge has been caught up in a secret recording scandal in recent weeks.
