Gregg Wallace, host of the UK version MasterChefis pulling out of the show while his production company and broadcaster investigate allegations of sexual misconduct.
On Thursday, November 28, several media outlets reported on this MasterChefProduction company Banijay UK said Wallace, 60, had stepped down as the investigation was completed. BBC News reported that he sent a letter to Wallace’s representatives on November 26 outlining allegations of inappropriate sexual comments made by 13 people who worked with him on a series of shows he hosted and hosted over 17 years.
According to BBC News and other media outlets, Wallace’s lawyers said it was “absolutely false that he is engaging in sexually harassing behavior.” Multiple media outlets also reported that Banijay UK had launched an investigation and said in a statement that Wallace, who co-hosted MasterChef since 2005, “is committed to full cooperation throughout the entire process” of the investigation.
Gregg Wallace March 20, 2024
Dave Bennett/Getty
Scottish television presenter and journalist Kirsty Wark told BBC News as part of her investigation that Wallace told “sexualised” jokes during filming when she was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef in 2011.
“There were two particular occasions where he used sexualized language in front of a number of people, and it wasn’t like anyone was addressing it,” she said in a video shared as part of a BBC News article. “Traffic was completely one-way, but I think people were uncomfortable, and [it was] something I didn’t really expect to happen.”
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“While these complainants have not made allegations directly to our show producers or parent company Banijay UK, we feel it is appropriate to conduct an immediate external review in order to fully and impartially investigate,” Banijay UK said in a statement obtained by several media outlets. , including Term i The Hollywood Reporter.
BBC News — which stated in its article that it remains editorially independent from Britain’s major public broadcasting corporation — further reported that the BBC once warned Wallace after two women complained about his behavior in 2018 on Impossible Celebrities. The women claimed that Wallace “openly talked about his sex life with staff on the show” which made them feel uncomfortable. As the newspaper reported, Wallace then apologized, and the women who complained were offered counseling.
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Gregg Wallace July 12, 2023
David M. Bennett/Dave Bennett/Getty
The media reported they began investigating Wallace last summer after learning of the allegations, which span five series Wallace worked on between 2005 and 2022.
“We take any issues raised seriously and have robust processes in place to deal with them,” a spokesman for the BBC, the broadcasting network MasterChefhe told PEOPLE in a statement. “We have always been clear that any behavior that falls below the standards expected by the BBC will not be tolerated.”
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