Gregg Wallace has issued his first assertion since greater than a dozen girls accused him of creating inappropriate sexual feedback and inappropriate conduct.
The MasterChef host took to Instagram to report a video through which he hit out at his accusers, saying the accusations come from a “handful of middle-class girls of a sure age.”
“I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years – newbie, skilled and Celeb MasterChef – and I believe in that point I’ve labored with over 4,000 contestants of all completely different ages, all completely different backgrounds, all walks of life,” Wallace mentioned. “And apparently now, I’m studying within the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that point. Now, within the newspaper I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class girls of a sure age simply from Celeb MasterChef. This isn’t proper.”
The accusations have been revealed in a BBC Information investigation from 13 girls together with ex-Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, who got here on the report to say the 60-year-old TV host instructed tales and made jokes of a “sexualized nature” on no less than two events in entrance of colleagues and contestants.
Since then, the likes of Rod Stewart have additionally come out publicly towards Wallace. Stewart mentioned Wallace humiliated his spouse Penny Lancaster when she was on MasterChef. Radio host Aasmah Mir additionally mentioned she complained to the BBC a number of years in the past about inappropriate feedback Wallace had allegedly made throughout filming. Others instructed the BBC Wallace down the years talked brazenly about his intercourse life, took his high off in entrance of a feminine employee and instructed a junior feminine colleague he wasn’t carrying any boxer shorts underneath his denims. In a letter to BBC Information, Wallace’s legal professionals denied he engaged in conduct of a “sexually harassing nature.”
Wallace completed his assertion by saying: “In over 20 years of tv, are you able to think about what number of girls, feminine contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo – are you able to think about?”
Wallace has stepped again from MasterChef whereas producer Banijay UK conducts a probe, though cameras will proceed rolling on the BBC collection.