Former BBC presenter Gregg Wallace has defended himself in his first interview since stepping down from his internet hosting duties following complaints about his habits and language behind the scenes.
Wallace left his high-profile internet hosting gig on the BBC’s MasterChef in November 2024, and this weekend he instructed the Day by day Mail newspaper the “tidal wave of abuse” he acquired left him contemplating suicide, pondering, “Is my insurance coverage updated? Will [Wallace’s wife] Anna get some cash? She doesn’t deserve this. It might be higher if I wasn’t right here.”
An investigation by BBC Information – which works independently of the BBC’s programme makers – revealed allegations o f inappropriate sexual feedback by 13 individuals who had labored with Wallace throughout a variety of reveals, over a 17-year-period.
Since then, additional claims of “groping” and “touching” have emerged, all of which Wallace has strenuously denied, including that he had phoned a number of co-presenters and friends who had supported his model of occasions.
He instructed the Day by day Mail he’d realised about seven years in the past that the brash, energetic, outspoken greengrocer persona he first dropped at his internet hosting duties was not acceptable, and he modified. He additionally referred to his latest autism prognosis of which, he mentioned, “I’m not blaming my behaviour on my prognosis, however it does clarify a hell of rather a lot to me.”
MasterChef‘s manufacturing firm Banijay has additionally launched an inquiry into the historic allegations. Each investigations have but to report their findings.
When he stood down whereas the BBC investigated the claims, Wallace arguably made issues worse for himself by posting a video on social media, wherein he mentioned “the allegations got here from ‘a handful of middle-class ladies of a sure age.”
At that time, even the UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer known as the presenter’s remarks “inappropriate and misogynistic.”
The BBC has since introduced that the present will return with Wallace changed by restaurant critic Grace Dent.
