Kate Garraway is criticised for defending 'brave' Jonathan Ross in heated row over his relationship with David Walliams and Russell Brand

Kate Garraway has been criticised by Good Morning Britain viewers after describing her friend Jonathan Ross as 'brave' for publicly distancing himself from David Walliams and Russell Brand.

During a heated discussion on today's programme, the GMB panel examined Ross's statement in which he apologised for a joke he made about Walliams going home with 15-year-olds.

Ross insisted he had been 'genuinely unaware' of allegations against both men and blamed the controversial gag on a scriptwriter at the British Comedy Awards.

'Had I had any reason to suspect that it might be referring to actual events, I would not only have refused to use it,' he said. 

Today there were claims that Ross was close enough to Russell Brand to allow the now-disgraced comedian to stay at his holiday home after he split from Katy Perry.

Ms Garraway, who became friends with Ross while appearing alongside him on Celebrity Traitors in 2025, defended his decision to publicly distance himself from Brand and Walliams.

The GMB host said: 'I think he has been rather brave about coming out and saying this.'

Viewers immediately took to social media to criticise her choice of the word 'brave.' 

GMB guest Ayesha Hazarika also argued it was 'nonsense' to suggest people in their social and professional circle could have been unaware of concerns about their behaviour citing an exchange during The Big Fat Quiz of the Year in 2007.

During the programme, Ross remarked to host Jimmy Carr: 'You've put the only attractive young lady near two of the best-known c***smen in the business.

'I'm going to move over here. And then Lily might go home with her dress still on.'

Noel Fielding replied: 'How dare you, we're not rapists.'

Brand responded: 'What if, horror of horrors, he ain't even done a rape. You could ruin his career. Have you done a rape?'

Addressing Ms Garraway's comments, Hazarika said: 'They were part of a culture where it was just hilarious to joke about doing something to a woman, a woman who's there with you. That is not okay.'

Viewers largely agreed on social media, with several suggesting Ms Garraway's description of Ross as 'brave' was misplaced.

Walliams has been accused of sexual misconduct, including grooming teenage girls as young as 15 and abusing his position to pursue women. He denies all allegations and any criminal wrongdoing.

One woman alleges Walliams groomed and sexually assaulted her after they met when she was 15. Another claims he first contacted her when she was 15 after meeting at a Little Britain event, with their relationship becoming sexual when she was 17.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ross, 65, said he was 'as horrified by the revelations about David Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand as the rest of the nation'.

The presenter, who was previously friends with both men, said he had been 'genuinely unaware' of their alleged conduct and insisted he would have acted had he known.

Ross said on Tuesday that he was 'horrified' by allegations of sexual misconduct against Walliams and Brand's rape conviction.

Brand was sentenced to more than ten years in prison on Monday after he was found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court.

Walliams has been accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl and preying on multiple teenagers in an investigation by The Guardian and ITV.

He has denied any criminal wrongdoing and said he is 'not a sexual predator'. 

In a statement issued after footage resurfaced of him joking about 15-year-olds 'going home with David Walliams', Ross said that while he had once been 'on friendly terms with both men', he was 'genuinely unaware of their conduct' at the time.

The clip, from the British Comedy Awards in 2004, showed Ross telling the audience: 'The Comedy Awards is 15 years old – 15 years old! And like most 15-year-olds, it's drunk, it's unpredictable and it's probably going home with David Walliams.'

Ross described the joke as 'tasteless' but said he did not write it himself.

Throughout the 2010s, Walliams was also a regular guest at Ross's Halloween parties, hosted at his house in north-west London.

At the event in 2017, Walliams caused controversy and was accused of being racist for dressing as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The comedian donned a black suit, complete with red lapel pins portraying previous rulers, while he also appeared to have changed his skin tone.

Meanwhile in 2024, Ross and Walliams were photographed together after a dinner out at Scott's Restaurant in Mayfair, central London.

The pair looked relaxed as they posed for pictures together in smart attire.

Walliams, who is one of the country's best-selling children's authors and was awarded an OBE, has also been a regular guest on Ross's TV chat shows.

In December 2016, he appeared on the Jonathan Ross Christmas Special, when he revealed his friend Kylie Minogue had turned him down for a date.

Walliams starred again on The Jonathan Ross Show in 2024, where he discussed meeting Tom Cruise with his son, as well as a proposed new project with Matt Lucas.

Meanwhile, Ross became close to Brand, who was last week convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, in the late 2000s.

The disgraced comedian appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in May 2006.

Then in 2008, both Ross and Brand's careers nearly imploded after they made a series of lewd jokes to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs on their BBC Radio 2 show.

In a scandal later dubbed 'Sachsgate', they left shocking voicemails to the actor about Brand's relationship with Sachs's 23-year-old granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, after he failed to appear for an interview on their show.

At one point, Ross shouted: 'He f***ed your granddaughter!'

After a wave of complaints and a £150,000 fine to the BBC, Brand left the station and moved to the US, while Ross was suspended from the Corporation for 12 weeks.

The following year, the pair appeared on radio together.

Ross said he wanted to do a 'big show' with Brand, and joked that the two of them will 'rule the world one day'.

Then in 2013, the pair were reunited on television for the first time since the 'Sachsgate' scandal, with Brand appearing on Ross's ITV1 chat show.

Ross told how the incident had been a bonding experience for the two of them – and had been a 'genuinely nice thing', which had resulted from the controversy.

'Russell and I went through an unusual experience together and even though we're both embarrassed by what we did, that's fair enough – but at the same time, the only genuinely nice thing that came out of it for me was the fact that we became very close,' he said. 

Walliams, 55, was named on Tuesday as the subject of a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News, after unsuccessfully attempting to obtain an injunction to prevent the publication of allegations against him.

The best-selling author and former Britain's Got Talent judge has been accused of sexual misconduct, including grooming teenage girls as young as 15 and abusing his position to pursue women.

Walliams vehemently denies all allegations against him.

Ross appears in a photograph featured in the investigation's accompanying ITV documentary, David Walliams: Power and Silence.

He was pictured alongside the comedian and author at an event also attended by one of the women who later made allegations about Walliams' conduct.

In his statement, Ross said: 'I am as horrified by the revelations about David Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand as the rest of the nation.

'There was a time in my life when I was on friendly terms with both men, and during that period I was genuinely unaware of their conduct.

'My thoughts are with the many, many women who have bravely come forward.'

The Jonathan Ross Show host has faced scrutiny over his past association with Brand, who was jailed on Monday for 10-and-a-half years for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.

Ross appeared on several television shows alongside Brand and also featured on his BBC Radio 2 show in 2008, when the pair became embroiled in a scandal involving Georgina Baillie.

The incident, dubbed 'Sachsgate', saw the pair leave a voicemail for her grandfather, actor Andrew Sachs, during which they made explicit comments about a relationship she had with Brand.

In his statement, Ross also addressed his controversial joke about Walliams and said: 'I recognise how deeply shocking it is to revisit footage of a joke delivered by me at the Comedy Awards in 2004, in which I make light of the notion of Walliams going home with a 15-year-old.

'This joke was submitted to me by the Comedy Awards script writing team and I believed that the punchline was a reference to the fact he had publicly dated younger women, exaggerated for comic effect.

'It is also a tasteless joke that I would not dream of making today about anyone, but that is beside the point.

'Had I had any reason to suspect that it might be referring to actual events, I would not only have refused to use it, but I would not have felt comfortable continuing a personal or professional relationship with him.

'I also like to think that I would have acted upon that knowledge.' 

Walliams was repeatedly named as a man to avoid on a female comics' WhatsApp group and schools were allegedly warned he was 'not an appropriate booking', it was claimed today.

Comedian Kate Smurthwaite said the group had been set up specifically so women in comedy could share concerns about men they believed should be given a wide berth on tour and in television studios.

Ms Smurthwaite said Walliams 'came up over and over' again – but he was not the only comedian raised in the group as being 'creepy as f***'.

She told BBC Newsnight: 'Walliams is a name that came up over and over and over again. In particular, there was a sense of concern about him working with young people and new acts, people coming onto the circuit who maybe weren't as wise and experienced as the rest of us.

'It's a name that's been there from the get-go.

'People were saying they knew individuals who had worked with him and either felt very uncomfortable and left, or stayed and felt his behaviour was inappropriate.'

Sharing messages from the group, one comic was described as 'beyond rude, shambolic and largely audience-free', prompting replies including: 'He is creepy as f***' and 'So creepy, avoid him if you can.'

Another comedian was discussed in a message that read: 'Yeah, I shared a car with him a couple of months ago. He's awful. I've warned promoters about him since then, but I keep seeing he still gets booked.'

Author Chloe Combi said there had been 'real concerns' about Walliams's behaviour within publishing circles more than a decade ago and that she had been warned to steer clear.

Ms Combi added: 'We were talking about the scheme and possible writers who might be good for the project and work well with teenagers.

'She gave me some great recommendations and said: "Whatever you do, don't invite David Walliams. And if you're speaking to head teachers or teachers, please inform them that he's not a good booking and not an appropriate booking for a school."

'I obviously asked why and, to be honest, I had already heard quite a lot of rumours because those worlds are quite small and contained.

'One of the things she said was that there had been real concerns about his behaviour around young female staff.'

TV chiefs face a legal crackdown to make them protect girls from predatory entertainers following the Walliams and Russell Brand scandals.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is hauling broadcasters in for a showdown next week after it was claimed that Walliams' alleged preying on young women was – as with Brand – an 'open secret' in the industry.

Both are said to have become so powerful, and were so lucrative for broadcasters, their behaviour went unchallenged.

Ms Nandy vowed to 'draw a line in the sand' when she meets entertainment leaders – threatening laws to clean up the industry if they do not act.

She said: 'A decade and a half on from the revelations about Jimmy Savile, and ten years on from the MeToo movement, we must finally take meaningful steps to end abuse and harassment.' 

No10 called the Walliams allegations 'deeply troubling', and said there was 'a pattern of behaviour that needs to change'.