The BBC has pulled two MasterChef celebrity specials from its Christmas schedule as new allegations emerged against Gregg Wallace.
Wallace stepped away from presenting the show last week after being accused of “highly inappropriate” sexualised comments and behaviour. Multiple people who worked with him on different shows over a 17-year-period have made allegations against him.
Broadcast journalist Kirsty Wark was one of the first women to publicly accuse Wallace, telling a BBC News investigation that he told “sexualised” and inappropriate jokes during the filming of Celebrity MasterChef in 2011 which made people “uncomfortable”.
New allegations from three women emerged on Tuesday. According to the BBC, one said Wallace pressed his crotch against her during filming, another was exposed to “the top part of his penis” in his dressing room and a third said he touched her bottom at an event.
The first woman worked on the BBC show Eat Well for Less in 2015 and described an incident when she alleged Wallace “touched [her] inappropriately” while they were filming in a supermarket.
“He brushed past me at the checkout, and touched my bum with his waist and penis and laughed and said: ‘Oooh, you liked that, didn’t you,’” she said.
“It was the way he reacted. Other people would’ve said: ‘Oh, I’m sorry, can I squeeze by?’ which would’ve been OK.”
Afterwards, she said she felt his behaviour had been “slimy” and “disgusting” and the incident had made her feel “uncomfortable”.
Another woman worked on MasterChef in 2015 and said she was called to Wallace’s dressing room to fix his bow tie after a work event.
While fastening his tie, she noticed his trousers were “partially lowered”. She did not see how this happened. “His pubic hair was on show, where you can see the top part of his penis, and he was wearing no boxers underneath.”
Instead of offering her an apology, she said Wallace stared at her in a way that felt like “a power play”. “I was shocked, I felt embarrassed by the whole thing,” she said.
The third woman said she met Wallace while working at an event in 2022. He pulled her and some other members of his group into a hug in the lift. “When doing this, he put his hand on my bottom and groped me. It made me feel gross, it was horrible,” she told BBC News.
Two of the women said they had mentioned the incidents to colleagues and friends at the time, but decided not take allegations further than that.
Wallace, 60, apologised on Monday for claiming complaints about his behaviour came from “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”, adding he would now “take some time out”.
The BBC said Wallace had not responded to the most recent allegations and his publicist did not immediately respond to a request by the Guardian for a comment. His lawyers were previously quoted by BBC News as saying: “It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.”
The BBC had previously announced a Celebrity MasterChef Cook-Off and a Strictly Festive Extravaganza as part of its festive schedule, both billed as hour-long programmes for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
A BBC spokesperson said: “As we have said, MasterChef is an amazing competition which is life-changing for the chefs taking part and the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals is continuing as planned.
“The celebrity Christmas specials are obviously a different type of show and in the current circumstances we have decided not to broadcast them.”
Three episodes of BBC Two’s Inside the Factory, which are repeats, are also coming out of the schedule in December, the BBC said.
A BBC series of MasterChef: The Professionals has remained on air since it was announced Wallace would step away amid the external review by Banijay UK, with episodes airing on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights.
Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said on Monday, when asked if the cookery show should be pulled off air, that the decision was for the BBC and the show’s production company and reiterated that Downing Street believes it is “right” that a thorough investigation was conducted.
Source: theguardian.com
