David Walliams has said how his model wife has banned him from taking on another challenge following his gruelling Thames swim in September last year. The 40-year-old Little Britain star suffered the parasitic infection giardiasis and still has physiotherapy after injuring a disc in his back during his eight-day charity swim.
David, who married Lara Stone in 2010, told the Radio Times that he wanted to fly to New York to meet his friend, adventurer Bear Grylls, to discuss a new endeavour. The comic said: "It was only scaling a rock face, but Lara got really upset and said no..." He told the magazine that his giardiasis, caused by a water-borne parasite, flared up and he had to cancel the meeting anyway. The new Britain's Got Talent judge said that swimming the length of the Thames had not cured his propensity for self-loathing.
"It sort of lessens and heightens at certain points ... For me it's always been there. So it's probably part of the reason that I try so hard to do things to please people." The star, who swam the English Channel in 2006, said: "Maybe the self-loathing bit is the element that makes you strive for more. Makes you strive to be better."