Dan Wootton has made a name for himself in the British media as a prominent voice at tabloid newspapers and TV channels like GB News.
The presenter and columnist is facing allegations that he used a pseudonym and offered colleagues money for sexual material, claims he has branded as “simply untrue”.
The publishers of MailOnline, where he writes a column, and his previous employers at The Sun newspaper said they are looking into allegations against the New Zealand-born journalist.
During his time at The Sun, Wootton was best known for breaking stories including the withdrawal of Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from royal duties.
In January 2020, the newspaper published a front page article with his byline which revealed that Harry and Meghan were reviewing their roles.
The couple later announced they intended to step back as “senior” members of the royal family, become financially independent – still supporting Queen Elizabeth but splitting their time between the UK and North America.
Wootton also became embroiled in a legal battle with Johnny Depp over an article published in April 2018 while he was the newspaper’s executive editor, which referred to Depp as a “wife-beater” in the headline.
The actor filed a libel claim against News Group Newspapers (NGN) – the owner of The Sun – which resulted in a 16-day trial in which the judge ruled that the content of the article was proven to be “substantially true”.
In January 2021, Wootton announced he would be leaving his job as executive editor at The Sun, where he had previously edited the paper’s Bizarre column.
He has since become a columnist for MailOnline, owned by DMG Media, which also publishes the Daily Mail and Metro newspapers.
He also hosts his own show on GB News, titled Dan Wootton Tonight, which explores daily news stories and hosts interviews.
Previously he was showbiz editor at the now-defunct News of the World and appeared on ITV’s Lorraine as the showbiz correspondent.
In a MailOnline column published in May, Wootton claimed former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield tried “multiple times” to have him fired as a contributor on Lorraine.
He has also previously suggested The Sun knew about Schofield’s relationship with a younger ITV colleague but said all he could “legally” write in 2019 while working for the newspaper was that a staff member moved from This Morning to Loose Women “despite a previous close friendship” with Schofield.
In an interview with the BBC, Schofield dismissed the claims that he tried to have Wootton dismissed from ITV, saying the accusations had come from Wootton’s “utter, total hatred” for him.
“You can’t do it. There is no way that any presenter on one show can get a contributor fired from another because they don’t like the fact they’re in the building,” Schofield said to the BBC.
“I don’t know where this came from, that I have more power than anybody else. Bless Dan, there is a lot of things that I think he said out of hatred for me.”
