Gregg Wallace live: MasterChef host faces new claims of ‘groping’ as BBC faces calls to pull show tonight

The allegations against the ‘MasterChef’ presenter show that if you are important enough and powerful enough your transgressions will often be overlooked. It’s time for that to change, writes Eleanor Mills:

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Stephen Fry has said men in television must consider who may be the “victim or stereotype” at the root of their “light banter” after Gregg Wallace apologised for his response to complaints made about his behaviour.

Fry told Sky News Breakfast on Tuesday: “I think if, by now, people who work in television, men who work in television, don’t understand that light banter is no longer something that can be aired in ways unless they think hard about, is there a sort of victim or a stereotype at the root of this banter who might be hurt.

“And it’s just good manners, really. Good manners have changed. In Victorian times, certain things couldn’t be referred to or seen and it was only polite to obey this because people were shocked and upset if things were not respected that they respect.

“And so I think we’ve all just got to realise it’s not about wokeness, it’s just about being sensitive to the atmosphere.”

Gregg Wallace, 60, is best known for co-presenting MasterChef alongside John Torode since 2005, as well as its spin-offs Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals.

He was the original presenter of the BBC show Saturday Kitchen in 2002 and has also featured on Eat Well For Less, Inside The Factory, Turn Back Time, Harvest, and Supermarket Secrets.

He was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022 for his services to food and charity. Mr Wallace took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 and was partnered with Aliona Vilani.

He has two children, Tom and Libby, from a former relationship. He married Anne-Marie Sterpini in 2016 and the couple have a son called Sid.

Downing Street has warned that it is “essential that staff and the wider public have confidence” that the BBC takes issues relating to workplace culture seriously.

After revealing that culture secretary Lisa Nandy spoke to BBC bosses last week after the Gregg Wallace row began, No 10 said: “More broadly the BBC is conducting an independent review into workplace culture which must deliver clear and timely recommendations.

“It’s essential that staff and the wider public have confidence that the BBC takes these issues seriously.”

A former MasterChef contestant has come forward with fresh allegations of inappropriate comments made by Gregg Wallace both during and after her time in the competition.

During her time on the show in 2011, Jackie Kearney claimed Wallace would make “sexual innuendos about women when they weren’t in earshot”, as well as in front of them.

She said added: “There were several times that he would comment on my legs, or comment on the skirts I was wearing… he made a comment once: ‘If I’d known you had legs like that, maybe you’d have made it further’.”

She later returned to the show as a guest judge in 2017, shortly after the publication of her second book, which she tried to give the two judges,

“I was feeling really proud of it,” she said. “I came into the studio and was like, ‘Hi Gregg, I’ve got something for you!’ And he said, ‘Oh, is it a present for my c**k?’”

She added: “I felt like I wanted the ground to swallow me up. The humiliation and embarrassment… but it wasn’t just about what he said. I felt so humiliated, I felt so stupid.”

She then went to the toilets and cried.

Gregg Wallace has been branded as “unbelievably foolish” by Stephen Fry for posting a video to social media over the weekend blaming “middle-class women of a certain age” for complaints against him.

The veteran actor told SkyNews: “It was obviously unbelievably foolish of Gregg Wallace to make that video over the weekend. It really showed that he wasn’t understanding.”

“Even if he felt he had been misunderstood himself, he could surely see that there were some women there who were truly hurt and had felt not listened to and that he should first of all address that.”

TV host Anita Rani has warned Gregg Wallace that the women he may have offended over the weekend have “long memories”.

The Countryfile host, 47, took to social media to respond to claims made by Wallace that “middle-class women of a certain age,” were to blame for misconduct complaints made against him.

She wrote: “It’s important to remember that many middle class women of a certain age grew up as working class girls who were, and are, fierce as f***. With long memories.”

“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.”