David Walliams has revealed that he once tried to get a date with one of the members of Girls Aloud – amid reports this week that he has split from model wife Lara Stone.
David, 42, dispelled the rumour that he and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini were once nearly an item during a special Comic Relief edition of The Graham Norton Show, in which they appear together on the red couch.
David Walliams and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini appear on the show (PA)
During filming – recorded before reports of his separation emerged – he told Graham: “When Girls Aloud came along I met Louis Walsh and asked him if any of the girls were single and he said he would ask.
“I thought he would do that discreetly, but he called a meeting of all of them and asked, ‘Do any of you want to go out with David Walliams?’ It was a No. And that was the end of that.”
The comic’s five-year marriage to Lara, 31, is reportedly on the rocks, with claims in The Sun that she has grown tired of his TV cross-dressing.
David Walliams and Lara Stone (PA)
David also spoke of how physicist Professor Stephen Hawking almost moved him to tears during the filming of a sketch for Comic Relief they will appear in together this year.
He said: “I don’t know how he got involved but he knew the show (Little Britain) and he is a comedy fan. I was chuffed he agreed and I loved getting script notes and I thought, ‘How often do you get script notes from a genius like that?’
“I was blown away and was actually very moved by the end of it. I felt like crying because I was so grateful he’d done it.”
David Walliams on the Graham Norton Comic Relief Show (PA)
As well as David and Cheryl – who is sporting a new shorter haircut which she says she has dyed for the charity – Graham will be joined by comedians Jennifer Saunders, Jack Dee and Johnny Vegas on the Comic Relief special, celebrating 30 years of the charity’s fundraising.
Jennifer, dressed in a Comic Relief onesie, glasses and fake eyebrows, said she and comedy partner Dawn French thought it was going to be a 'one-off gig' when they were first invited to get involved.
She said: “Comic Relief is one of the few places where you can actually do anything you want. They say, ‘What do you want to do? You can do that’. And off you go. It’s been like a dream.”
Jennifer Saunders, David Walliams, Graham Norton, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Jack Dee and Johnny Vegas on the show (PA)
Talking about The Great Comic Relief Bake Off final, to be held on Red Nose Day on March 13, she laughed off suggestions the bar for the competition had been set quite low by her fellow celebrities.
She said: “No, but Lulu had never turned an oven on and Joanna Lumley had never cooked anything. I think I was the only one that had ever cooked before.”
Johnny revealed he will be performing in a One Direction tribute band on Red Nose Day – called No Direction. He said: “I’m going to be one of the singers – I don’t know which one, but he has a red hoodie. I’m a Leonard Cohen sort of guy and One Direction doesn’t really go with that. I’m going to learn the song, sing it and dance to it.”
The Graham Norton Comic Relief Show screens tomorrow on BBC One at 10.35pm.
