David Walliams says sexuality 'can change for people over the years'

Funnyman David Walliams says sexuality "can change over the years".

The Britain's Got Talent judge, 41, recently became father to a baby boy with supermodel Lara Stone after the couple married three years ago in London.

Asked about his sexuality, Walliams, who previously told how his father nicknamed him Davina as a young boy because he liked to walk around his home in a silk dressing gown, told the Radio Times: "I think it's all about falling in love with the person and that is overlooked, really."

The star, famous for his cross-dressing "I'm a laydee" character in Little Britain, said: "I hate it when people 'confess' or 'reveal' their sexuality and also things can change for people over the years.

"So it is about the person but I also think it goes beyond that. You don't just fall in love with someone's body, do you? You fall in love with someone's soul and heart and brain."

Walliams has previously been quoted as saying that he had "gay experiences as a child and (I) remember being very confused about that".

He has also said: "I've always been effeminate, and I think people confuse effeminacy with homosexuality, like they go hand-in-hand."

The Little Britain star, who plays a chemistry teacher in Big School, a new BBC1 sitcom which he created, also told the Radio Times that he was devastated as a schoolboy fan of Rowan Atkinson when he asked the Blackadder star for his autograph.

When he asked Atkinson "what advice can you give to an aspiring comedian?" the star replied, "Don't do it."

"I was really crushed," Walliams told the magazine. "He meant it as a joke but I was thinking, 'Wow! I'm meeting Rowan Atkinson - he's going to give me the secret of comedy."

Walliams has spoken out previously about depressive episodes and suicide attempts, but he told the magazine his life was now "in a different place".

He said of his depression: "It comes from overthinking everything sometimes - having an overactive mind, and your mind racing when you should be sleeping or whatever.

"So it's quite easy to turn in on yourself and be very self-critical. And obviously you want to have an active mind because I want to be able to write scripts and books but at the same time, it's hard to switch that off and that's why a lot of people who are creative sometimes have problems with their drinking or taking drugs because their minds won't stop."

Walliams said that being an outsider at school helped him succeed in his career.

"Sometimes I think that people who really thrive at school don't necessarily thrive at life.

"I think that being a little bit of an outsider is actually quite helpful. Creative imagination is formed when you're on your own a lot and not so much if you're out all day playing football and having fun with your friends.

"So I think those formative experiences are good and also I don't think you can expect them all to be happy. Life is full of pain and as a child you feel it because you are powerless and so you feel those things very intensely. You feel trapped because so many things are decided for you."

PA