Author Chloe Combi told BBC News she was warned about David Walliams more than a decade ago.

At a 2015 event, she says a 'quite senior' figure in publishing advised her against inviting Walliams to a scheme bringing writers into schools, telling her: 'Whatever you do, don't invite David Walliams' and asking her to warn head teachers that he was 'not an appropriate booking for a school'.

Combi, who says she never met Walliams, told BBC News that concerns about his behaviour around young female staff were an 'open secret' among publishing, TV and celebrity circles.

The surprise is the timeline.

Times Now reports that Combi's account suggests warnings were circulating informally within British publishing years before this week's Guardian and ITV News investigation, which alleges several women accused Walliams of sexual misconduct, inappropriate behaviour and abusing his position — accusations he denies.

Her claims, Times Now notes, have not independently established what individual publishers knew at the time, but they shift the question from what happened to who knew.

According to the BBC report, the Guardian and ITV investigation includes allegations that one woman met Walliams at a fan event at 15 and says he groomed her, that another alleges an assault when she was 15, and that he had a relationship with at least one junior HarperCollins employee.

In his statement to ITV News and the Guardian, Walliams said: 'I am not a sexual predator. I have not broken the law', while conceding he at times 'behaved thoughtlessly' in casual relationships.

The allegations have not been established in court.

The commercial fallout is sweeping. HarperCollins, which published Walliams's best-selling children's books, dropped new titles after an internal investigation, and in September 2026 stopped publishing his back catalogue.

Times Now reports Waterstones plans to return remaining stock, The Works and TGJones have removed his books, and the British Book Awards withdrew the 2019 Children's Fiction Book of the Year won by 'The Ice Monster'.

Combi's account now sits alongside these moves as a test of institutional responsibility.

The story has moved beyond publishing into government. Media minister Ian Murray told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee there is a 'cultural problem' in the media industry that needs to be 'stamped out', saying he was 'deeply saddened and also angry' at the prevalence of abuse.

Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson told the Commons that the testimonies show 'how much further we have to go', and told Sky News the government would 'go further' on restricting non-disclosure agreements that let powerful men 'buy their silence'.

Combi's account leaves the industry facing Times Now's framing of the question: whether informal warnings can protect vulnerable people, and what institutions should do when concerns about powerful figures emerge.

Comedian Deborah Frances-White told BBC Radio 4 that young women are 'definitely' still being exploited in comedy, while Labour MP Jess Phillips told the Today programme the alleged behaviour was 'an absolute modus operandi' targeting women with less power.

Expect fresh scrutiny of how schools events, publishers and broadcasters vet star authors.