He had been a presenter and judge on Masterchef for almost 20 years
Gregg Wallace has broken his silence on historical misconduct allegations which arose this week and led to the TV personality stepping down from his role.
The 60-year-old had been a co-presenter and judge on the popular BBC cooking show, Masterchef, since 2005.
The show’s production company, Banijay UK, has said he will be stepping away from the programme while complaints made to the BBC about historical allegations of misconduct are investigated.
The company said in a statement that the presenter is “committed to fully co-operating throughout the process,” BBC News reports.
They continued: “This week the BBC received complaints from individuals in relation to historical allegations of misconduct while working with presenter Gregg Wallace on one of our shows.
“Whilst these complainants have not raised the allegations directly with our show producers or parent company Banijay UK, we feel that it is appropriate to conduct an immediate, external review to fully and impartially investigate.”
The statement added: “While this review is under way, Gregg Wallace will be stepping away from his role on MasterChef and is committed to fully co-operating throughout the process.
Now Wallace has responded to the allegations with a video posted to Instagram in which he singled out a “handful of middle-class women of a certain age”.
“I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years – amateur, professional and Celebrity MasterChef – and I think in that time I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life,” Wallace told his more than 200,000 followers.
“And apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time.
“Now, in the newspaper I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn’t right.”
He added: “In over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo – can you imagine?”
Wallace and his lawyers strongly deny any wrong doing.
Meanwhile, the BBC has come under fire for its dealing of the complaints of misconduct by Wallace raised in both 2017 and 2022.
Radio host Aasmah Mir said she complained to the broadcaster about inappropriate comments Wallace had allegedly made during filming.
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Mir later sent an email, saying: “This must not happen again to another woman.”
This comes after a separate BBC review concluded he could continue working at the corporation following an investigation into an alleged incident in 2018 on the gameshow Impossible Celebrities.
Responding to reports about the investigation last month, Wallace denied saying “anything sexual” during his appearance on the show.
The 59-year-old has featured on various BBC shows during his career, including Saturday Kitchen, Eat Well For Less, Supermarket Secrets, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals, and was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2014.
He was made an MBE for services to food and charity last year.
