Featured Image Credit: Channel 4 / David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
Topics: Gregg Wallace, Celebrity, BBC, TV
Joe Harker
Topics: Gregg Wallace, Celebrity, BBC, TV
Gregg Wallace has stepped away from Masterchef hosting duties following a slew of allegations made against him.
The show's producers announced earlier this week that the BBC had 'received complaints from individuals in relation to historical allegations of misconduct' while working with Wallace.
They said the complaints had not been raised with Banijay UK, the production company behind Masterchef, but that they decided to launch an investigation while Wallace stepped away from his role on the show for the time being.
Wallace responded with a statement thanking people who'd got in contact with him to provide support, while the BBC confirmed that 13 people, including newsreader Kirsty Wark, alleged that he had made inappropriate sexual comments.
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Wark, who appeared on Celebrity Masterchef in 2011, said that the presenter had told 'sexualised' jokes while filming.
Other allegations have followed, as The Sun reported that three women had alleged that they had either been groped by Wallace or seen him grope someone else.
One woman claimed that he groped her on the Masterchef set while the cameras were rolling, while a second alleged that she had been in a pub with Wallace when he told her 'that she aroused him' after groping her and the third alleged that she'd seen him groping a camera assistant.
Another allegation, this time reported by the Telegraph, involves a staff member who claimed that Wallace mimicked a sex act and then asked her to clean his trousers, while someone else claimed that he once walked into the Masterchef studio completely naked apart from a sock over his genitals.
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Legal representatives for Gregg Wallace said it was 'entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature'.
Following the allegations some people have been looking at past comments and interactions from other people in the world of showbiz, with Masterchef presenter John Torode saying they'd 'never been friends'.
One of those is the late and much-loved comedian Sean Lock, who spoke about Wallace on an episode of 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown when he was discussing who he thought should become a national treasure.
He said: "Now this guy - Gregg Wallace. He came close because I like him, because he wears a hair net, even though he’s bald.
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"I like him because he’s got no sense of irony or humour. But, I’ve met him."
After saying this, Lock stamped the word 'no' on a picture of Wallace and said 'no Gregg, he tried to put his spoon in my pudding'.
Another famous face who spoke against Wallace is Rod Stewart, who made his comments after the announcement that Wallace would be stepping back from Masterchef, writing 'good riddance' and accusing him of having 'humiliated my wife when she was on the show' before calling the presenter a 'tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully'.
The BBC have confirmed that they plan to broadcast all recorded episodes of Masterchef that they have scheduled.