David Walliams and Simon Cowell’s Britain’s Got Talent feud escalates after dig

David Walliams has issued a scathing dig at former Britain’s Got Talent colleague Simon Cowell as their alleged feud escalates.

After acting as a judge on the ITV talent show from 2012 up until 2022, David was fired and replaced by Bruno Tonioli when leaked recordings revealed he’d made offensive remarks about contestants.

The comedian apologised for his comments but later took production company FremantleMedia to court, suing them for ‘significant damages’.

He eventually reached a settlement, which was reported to be around £5 million.

Now, however, Walliams has added further fuel to the fire during a panel appearance at Advertising Week Europe.

The panel’s host Melanie Rockcliffe said: ‘David Walliams, you were a judge on Britain’s Got Talent for a decade and won best judge at the National TV Awards four times,’ according to the Independent.

Responding, Walliams said without missing a beat: ‘Simon Cowell never won once.’

He then added: ‘That’s all he does is judging. It was a tiny part of my career. For him, it was the focus and he still couldn’t win it.’

His comments prompted laughter from the crowd before Rockliffe asked: ‘He wasn’t happy with you, was he?’, to which Walliams replied: ‘No.’

He did, however, admit that working on Britain’s Got Talent ‘was a fun show to do’.

Walliams has previously made similar digs at Cowell, like during his appearance on This Morning last year when he was promoting his latest children’s book.

In a Q&A segment with young fans, David was asked by a boy called Jasper if ‘any of the characters in your books based on real people?’

‘That is a good question. Whenever I’m trying to think of an evil villain I always think “what would Simon Cowell do?”’ he quipped, leaving hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley bursting out in laughter.

David then went on to explain how a Britain’s Got Talent contestant called Cockroach Ken also inspired a character in a previous book.

He then told kids to ‘keep their eyes and ears open as you never know when you might have a good idea for a story’.

After announcing it had reached a settlement with Williams, Fremantle issued its own apology, stating: ‘We are sincerely sorry that his private conversations when a judge on Britain’s Got Talent were published, and the great distress this caused David.

‘We have reviewed our production practices on the show to ensure they fully respect the expectations of our talent whilst satisfying the requirements of the show. We have enjoyed a great relationship with David over many years.

‘We thank David for being an important part of the Britain’s Got Talent family and the enduring success of the show and hope to have opportunities to work with him in the future.

‘We are pleased that we have achieved an amicable resolution of this dispute with David.’

Metro has contacted David and Simon for comment.

Britain’s Got Talent continues at 7pm on ITV.

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