Gregg Wallace has issued his first statement since more than a dozen women accused him of making inappropriate sexual comments and inappropriate behavior.
The MasterChef host took to Instagram to record a video in which he hit out at his accusers, saying the accusations come from 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 said. “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.”
The accusations were published in a BBC News investigation from 13 women including ex-Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, who came on the record to say the 60-year-old TV host told stories and made jokes of a “sexualized nature” on at least two occasions in front of colleagues and contestants.
Since then, the likes of Rod Stewart have also come out publicly against Wallace. Stewart said Wallace humiliated his wife Penny Lancaster when she was on MasterChef. Radio host Aasmah Mir also said she complained to the BBC several years ago about inappropriate comments Wallace had allegedly made during filming. Others told the BBC Wallace down the years talked openly about his sex life, took his top off in front of a female worker and told a junior female colleague he wasn’t wearing any boxer shorts under his jeans. In a letter to BBC News, Wallace’s lawyers denied he engaged in behavior of a “sexually harassing nature.”
Wallace finished his statement by saying: “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 has stepped back from MasterChef while producer Banijay UK conducts a probe, although cameras will continue rolling on the BBC series.
