Disgraced MasterChef star Gregg Wallace has lashed out at ‘middle-class women of a certain age’ in a rant online after he was accused of sexist behaviour.
Wearing a Matt Hampson Foundation t-shirt as he filmed himself for his Instagram story this morning, Wallace said he has worked with people of ‘all different ages, all different backgrounds and all different walks of life’.
Speaking about the complaints against him, he said they are ‘coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age’ and declared ‘this isn’t right’.
He went on to ask: ‘Can you imagine how many women on MasterChef have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo?’
It comes after it emerged last night that the BBC was reportedly warned about the 60-year-old’s alarming behaviour in 2008 but ‘nothing was done’.
Former contestant Dr Kate Tomas, 42, said she complained about Wallace’s treatment of her on the show 16 years ago, claiming he ‘sexually harassed’ and ‘bullied’ her.
Dr Tomas, a spiritual mentor to the stars, slammed him as ‘disgusting and repulsive’.
Four-times married Wallace has stepped back as a judge while show chiefs investigate claims from 13 people including Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, 69.
Wark, who competed in Celebrity MasterChef 2011, claimed Wallace told stories and jokes of a ‘sexualised nature’ in front of contestants and the show’s crew.
A former staff member told the BBC that Wallace showed her topless pictures of himself and begged her for massages, while a lesbian ex-worker on Channel 5 show Gregg Wallace’s Big Weekends said he pressed her on the logistics of dating women.
Other ex-colleagues complained Wallace would talk openly about his sex life, with one male worker on Big Weekends alleging boasts about having threesomes with sex workers and alleging he ‘loves spanking’ several times a day.
A junior female staffer on the BBC’s Eat Well for Less? claimed Wallace told her in 2019 that he wasn’t wearing any boxer shorts.
MasterChef’s producer Banijay UK drafted in top City law firm Lewis Silkin to investigate allegations against Wallace.
Speaking on his Instagram story this morning, Wallace said: ‘Now I’ve been doing Master Chef for 20 years. Amateur, Celebrity and MasterChef.Â
‘In that time I’ve worked with 40,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds and all different walks of life.Â
‘Now I’m reading in the paper that there have been 13 complaints in that time.Â
‘I can see them coming from a handful of middle class women of a certain age just from Celebrity MasterChef.Â
‘This isn’t right. Over 20 years of TV, can you imagine how many women on MasterChef have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo?’
He then posted a screenshot of a comment from Lisa Addison, who was a contestant on MasterChef in 2022.
The comment read: ‘Filmed with Greg two years ago. An absolute gentleman. The woke will not stop until they get what they want!’
Last week, former MasterChef winner Emma Kennedy revealed that she reported him 12 years ago.
The 57-year-old allegedly witnessed him grope a camera assistant during a photoshoot for the finals.
She claimed the PR team who worked for MasterChef were aware of Wallace’s behaviour and worried it was only a matter of time before it became public.
The actress and comedian told The Sun: ‘They knew then. They knew before then and they’ve known since.’
A total of 13 people, including Kirsty Wark, complained about Wallace’s conduct while working with him over a 17-year period across five shows, from 2005 to 2022, the BBC revealed.
The presenter was accused of taking his top off in front of a female worker saying he wanted to ‘give her a fashion show’ and talking about his sex life to others, including telling one female colleague he wasn’t wearing any boxer shorts under his jeans.
According to a former staff member who worked on the production, Wallace would make the inappropriate remarks just after the contestant walked off the set.
They told The Telegraph Wallace would regularly make the ‘very offensive’ comments in front of the filming team, but that they felt unable to report them at the time due to their junior position.
The ‘racist’ remarks included allegedly making ‘Kung Fu noises’ and saying ‘me so horny’ while on set filming a series.
Dr Tomas also revealed on TikTok that Wallace allegedly ‘commented inappropriately’ after she ‘got a flush of red’ across her chest during judging of dishes.
She said: ‘He was like ‘what’s that?’ motioning to my chest, and I look down and I can see I’ve got a flush of red across my chest.
‘I feel so self-conscious and want to cover myself up because he’s staring at my f****** t*** – all of which is being filmed.’
She accused Wallace of being a ‘racist piece of s***’ after he allegedly imitated an Asian accent in front of an Indian cameraman.
Dr Tomas, who was married to an Indian at the time, said Wallace also ‘bullied’ her for wearing sindoor, a red dye on the hair parting signifying her married status.
She added Wallace ‘violently swiped’ potatoes off a counter after she decided not to use them in her recipe.
She said: ‘They went rolling on the floor. [He said] ‘Oh, you don’t need those then do you?’ and swiped them off the table.’
Dr Tomas, who has dated Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield, said she complained about Wallace’s behaviour at the time.
She did not make it clear on TikTok to whom she had complained.
She added she had been ‘traumatised and re-triggered’ when she learned he was being investigated over historic misconduct claims.
It was previously reported by The Times back in May last year that he had also allegedly offended female staff members at the Nestlé UK factory in York with comments about their weight during a ‘friendly’ conversation.
And in another instance of inappropriate behaviour, a shocking video re-emerged of Wallace approaching 2013 MasterChef contestant Katy Brand in the kitchen and remarking he would ‘munch the living daylights out of her little tart’.
Reacting to the resurfaced video of Wallace’s tart comment, Brand called the encounter ‘awkward’ and recalled her immediate ‘shock and disbelief’ at the ‘crass and idiotic joke’.
‘I took it as an innuendo-laden remark at the time, and I still see it that way now,’ she said.
Other inappropriate TV moments involving Wallace included a bizarre remark about ‘salty balls’ in a MasterChef contestant’s underwhelming starter in 2023.
He told Diya Kotecha-Lodhia: ‘I found those balls really quite salty.’
In 2015 while tasting a female contestant’s dessert, Wallace declared: ‘I want to take my shirt off and dive in!’
Celebrities that have now come out to complain about the presenter’s conduct include Rod Stewart and Ulrika Jonsson.
One former contestant, who wished to remain anonymous, has today accused Wallace of groping her while she was cooking on the set of the show.
He also allegedly shouted ‘You stupid cow’ when she turned on the tap incorrectly and scalded her hand.
The woman claims she let Wallace know she was disgusted by his actions, but said she ‘had her card marked’ for not seeing it as banter.
She told The Sun that Wallace came up behind her as she stood at the kitchen counter and put his hands on her hips before pressing into her.
‘I made an ‘Eww’ sound and stepped forward,’ she said. ‘It was my instant reaction. But it set his mangy on edge and he moved on without saying anything.’
When the woman burned her hand under the hot tap, it was at that moment, she claimed, Wallace decided to be an ‘absolute b*****d.
‘It was awful. He offered no assistance. I wanted to cry,’ she said.
The woman claimed Wallace was also appalling in the way he treated the show’s staff, pushing a camerawoman and shouting ‘Get out of my f****ng face’.
The contestant said she didn’t make a complaint about Wallace’s behaviour at the time because she ‘didn’t see the point’ because ‘they won’t do anything’.
Wallace has insisted that it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.
On Friday night, a Downing Street spokesperson said the allegations around Wallace’s conduct were ‘deeply concerning’.
The spokesperson said: ‘It’s right that a thorough investigation is conducted, but this of course is one for the BBC and you will have seen their statement saying that they ‘take any issues that are raised with us seriously and we have robust processes in place’.
‘While that process is underway it wouldn’t be right for me to comment. I believe the BBC is currently undertaking a workplace culture review to deliver clear and timely recommendations, and it’s essential that staff and the wider public have confidence that the BBC takes these issues seriously.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We take any issues that are raised with us seriously and we have robust processes in place to deal with them. We are always clear that any behaviour which falls below the standards expected by the BBC will not be tolerated.
‘Where an individual is contracted directly by an external production company we share any complaints or concerns with that company and we will always support them when addressing them.’
