David Walliams quietly sold his £4m beachfront home to Bridgerton's Jonathan Bailey just weeks before being dumped by HarperCollins

Detailed summary

The shamed comic and author sold his beachfront home in Hove as his publishers concluded a year-long investigation into several allegations of sexual harassment by female staff.

Published: 17:02 GMT, 11 November 2026 | Updated: 18:48 GMT, 11 November 2026

David Walliams quietly offloaded his £4million seaside home just weeks before he was dumped by his publishers, HarperCollins.

The shamed comic and author, 55, sold his beachfront home in Hove as his publishers concluded a year-long investigation into several allegations of sexual harassment by female staff.

He sold the desirable home to Bridgerton star, Jonathan Bailey, in August 2025, for £3.7million – £200,000 more than the £3.5million asking price, according to Land Registry documents.

Just weeks later – in December 2025 – HarperCollins dropped Walliams and announced it would no longer publish new titles by the author.

Bailey, 38, and Walliams knew each other from acting circles and appeared together in a Comic Relief sketch 'Traitors: The Movie for Comic Relief' for Red Nose Day in 2024.

The pair both starred in the fundraising sketch and were pictured together which were later uploaded to social media by Bailey.

David Walliams sold his seaside home on the Brighton seafront to Bridgerton star, Jonathan Bailey for £3.7million - just weeks before he was dropped by his publisher HarperCollins

Walliams is pictured here with the actor he sold his property to. He captioned it: Jonathan as Traitor Harry and David Walliams as Paul Gorton in The Traitors: The Movie for Comic Relief

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Mail. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.