MasterChef presenter stands by Gregg Wallace following accusations of inappropriate conduct – as other famous individuals come forward to share their opinions

MasterChef host Monica Galetti seemingly lent her support to Gregg Wallace last night after he stepped back from the show amid accusations of ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming.

The New Zealand-based chef, who acts as a judge on MasterChef: The Professionals, which continues to air this week, liked her embattled colleague’s Instagram post.

Writing in March, Wallace described Galetti as ‘a friend of mine’ and ‘a class act’.

Wallace’s Instagram clip, which was also liked by Wahaca boss Thomasina Miers, saw the MasterChef judge thank people for their support – hours after he was branded a ‘bully’ in a bombshell intervention by from Sir Rod Stewart. 

Allegations against the former greengrocer continued to pour in today, including a claim that he touched up a young assistant’s bottom on set in 2012.  

Meanwhile, he attempted to rebut some of the criticism by sharing an article by restaurant critic William Sitwell, who insisted he was a ‘top bloke’ despite ‘having a mouth like Bernard Manning’.

It comes as – 

The allegation that Wallace inappropriately touched a young assistant in 2012 was made by the writer and actress Emma Kennedy, who won celebrity MasterChef that year. 

She wrote on Threads: ‘For the record, I complained about behaviour I witnessed on MasterChef in 2012. They knew then. They knew before then and they’ve known since. I was in the studio for a round of photographs to be taken of finalists that year.

‘The photographer had a young female assistant. At one point she bent over to deal with equipment and GW took this as an opportunity to feel her a***. I told him it was inappropriate, I informed production.

‘Later, after we had finished that series, we all went to the Good Food show. I had a lengthy conversation with a member of the PR team on MC and the only topic of conversation was ‘when the problem with GW was going to come to light’. This was in 2012.

Wallace’s right-hand man John Torode has yet to speak on any of the allegations, while fellow MasterChef judge Marcus Wareing has also kept silent.

Greg and John have endured a tumultuous relationship during their 19-year tenure of the show. 

Although John was Gregg’s best man for his fourth wedding to Anne Marie in 2016, the duo have in the past admitted they had a spat so awful that filming for MasterChef had to be called off, while John has said they’ve ‘never really’ been friends. 

Their relationship was made even more difficult after John’s wife Lisa Faulkner claimed Gregg made ‘rude joke after rude joke’ while MasterChef was being filmed.

Number 10 weighed in on the Wallace scandal today, with a spokesman saying: ‘Obviously the allegations made are deeply concerning regarding today’s reporting.

‘It’s right that a thorough investigation is conducted. But this is one for the BBC.

He added: ‘While that process is underway it wouldn’t be right for me to comment.’

Wallace 60, stepped away from MasterChef yesterday as allegations swirled about his behaviour on the hit BBC show. 

They include claims he told a junior female colleague he wasn’t wearing any boxer shorts under his jeans, wandered into the studio naked apart from a sock on his penis and mimicked a sex act on a producer when she knelt down to clean his trousers.

The BBC has since revealed that 13 people, including Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark, have complained about his conduct while working with him over a 17-year period across five shows, from 2005 to 2022. 

Ms Wark alleges that Wallace told stories and jokes of a ‘sexualised nature’ in front of contestants and crew while filming Celebrity MasterChef in 2011 on two occasions, adding that his gags and comments were ‘really, really in the wrong place’. 

The BBC claims that Gregg walked away from MasterChef after BBC News sent a letter to his agent on Tuesday, setting out the allegations and giving him a right of reply.

They say he was warned after a complaint was raised in 2018, but new historical claims emerged over the summer of 2024.

Gregg is ‘committed to fully cooperating throughout the process’, the show’s production company Banijay UK said.

Gregg will be on BBC One as usual on Thursday night because MasterChef: The Professionals, which is already recorded, will transmit as planned and into December. MasterChef’s Christmas specials will also still be broadcast.      

 The BBC and Banijay declined to comment.

In a video posted on Instagram last night, Wallace said: ‘I would like to thank all the people getting in touch, reach out and showing their support.

‘That’s good of you, thank you very much.’

The star stepped away from MasterChef after 13 people accused him of ‘wrong’ and inappropriate ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming. 

Celebrity whistleblowers include: 

• Aggie Mackenzie said Gregg ‘behaved like a sort of Sid James character’ who made ‘stupid, unfunny jokes that people kind of had to tolerate’;
• Charlotte Crosby branded him ‘extremely unpleasant’;
• Kirsty Wark accused him of ‘wrong’ and inappropriate ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming;
• Aasmah Mir, also a MasterChef contestant, shared cryptic tweet after Wallace left the show yesterday;
• Footage of him telling Katy Brand: ‘I’ll munch the living daylights out of your little tart’ emerges;
• Sir Rod Stewart says he bullied Penny Lancaster, who was criticised by Gregg for her tartare sauce and timings; Penny is expected to help the BBC inquiry;

And production staff claimed:

• Star allegedly joked about threesomes with prostitutes and ‘spanking’; 
• Male colleague claims Gregg made a foul joke about food tasting like an aunt’s intimate areas; 
• A female runner claims he asked her if she ever put her finger up her boyfriend’s bottom; 
• A woman refused to work with him again after her experience on BBC’s Eat Well For Less TV show after he allegedly asked her to sort his parking tickets. He allegedly said she was only just younger than his wife and: ‘You can come to my car, but can you handle the fact everyone will think you just got off with a celebrity?’ 
• She and a colleague also said he left a bathroom with no top on to ask them to get him coffee; 
• Woman who worked on Channel 5’s Gregg Wallace’s Big Weekends in 2019 said he took out his phone and showed her photos of a woman in her underwear. 
• She also claims she took him back to his hotel room to show him his on-screen outfits and so took off his top and allegedly said ‘let me give you a fashion show’;
• Wallace allegedly wandered into the MasterChef studio ‘completely naked’ apart from a ‘sock pulled over his penis’ before throwing himself into a ‘silly dance’; 
• Witness claims he allegedly mimicked a sex act while a crew member was on her knees; 
• He allegedly joked about going commando under his jeans at work;

Yesterday, Sir Rod Stewart called Wallace a ‘tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’ for ‘humiliating’ his wife Penny Lancaster when she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021. 

Fans of the show will remember Penny leaving Celebrity MasterChef in tears in 2021, after Gregg told her off with the ‘serious’ delay of her food and then refused to eat her food.

Following Gregg’s departure, Rod wrote: ‘So Greg [sic] Wallace gets fired from Master Chef.

‘Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you?

‘You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully. Karma got ya. Sir Rod Stewart’

As chaos filled the kitchen during her stint on the show, Gregg told Penny: ‘Mate, we can’t be 10 minutes late,’ calling her delay ‘serious’.

Following Penny’s eviction from the kitchen in 2021, she shared a cryptic post on Instagram hinting at ‘a person’s behaviour’.

She wrote on Instagram: ‘When you finally learn that a person’s behaviour has more to do with their own struggle than it ever did with you, you learn grace’.

Ulrika Jonsson, who appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2017, today claimed a female contestant was hugely upset by Wallace making a ‘rape joke’ which caused another person to storm off set and complain to their bosses.

‘They then went off to speak to Gregg. After a while he came up…and he apologised. He could hardly get his words out. He was apologising, and he had tears in his eyes’, she said.

But she added: ‘The apology should have been to everyone. It felt like, you know, ‘don’t make the joke in the first place’ and said she ‘definitely’ felt uncomfortable on set following his joke.

Today Aggie Mackenzie, presenter of ‘How Clean is Your House’ who was also on the 2011 series of celebrity MasterChef, said Wallace ‘behaved like a sort of Sid James character’ who would tell sex jokes and ‘swagger around and do as he liked’.