1 December 2024, 23:45
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Alamy
Claims of misconduct against Gregg Wallace are the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of misconduct at MasterChef, a former contestant on the BBC show has said.
The claims reported in Sky News said that the former contestant says he witnessed a “toxic environment” and was so “horrified” he considered quitting the show on day one.
He alleged “abuse” of contestants was widespread through the “production team” at the long-running cooking programme.
Several people have made claims of misconduct against Wallace in recent days, which has seen him step back from presenting the show.
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He said: “I was horrified. I’d never seen anything like it, genuinely, I was really quite shocked at that really toxic environment.
“What I witnessed… as a contestant was that there was a systemic problem that was larger than just him, in my view.
“Gregg… would occasionally crack jokes that in different ways felt inappropriate but he wasn’t the only one.”
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Alamy
It comes after Wallace blamed “middle class women of a certain age” for the claims of misconduct levelled against him on Sunday.
Accusations have also been made that TV bosses had been aware of Wallace’s alleged misconduct for years before they became public.
Wallace, 60, took to social media on Sunday to dispute the claims, saying: “I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years, amateur, celebrity and professional MasterChef, and I think, in that time, I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life.
“Apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time.
“I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age, just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn’t right.
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Alamy
“In 20 years, over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks, or sexual innuendo? Can you imagine?”
It comes after newly surfaced emails appeared to show that BBC bosses were warned of allegations about Wallace’s on-set behaviour in 2017, new emails reportedly show.
Kate Phillips, who is now overseeing unscripted programmes for the corporation, reportedly received an email from Celebrity MasterChef contestant and broadcaster Aasmah Mir in 2017 about Wallace.
In the emails published by The Sunday Times, Mir said Wallace’s alleged sexist behaviour was “unacceptable and cannot continue”.
Read More: Gregg Wallace shares bizarre message amid mounting misconduct claims against Masterchef presenter
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Phillips told Mir that she would make sure that she was informed of any further allegations against Wallace emerge.
The 60-year-old reportedly faces allegations from 13 people across a range of shows over a 17-year period, including former Newsnight host Kirsty Wark.
Mir wrote in the exchange: “Should anything happen in the future, I don’t want to feel guilty when people say ‘why wasn’t anything said before?’, or for producers or editors to claim they didn’t know.”
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Getty
She later wrote: “This must not happen again to another woman.” Wallace’s lawyers have denied that he engages in sexually harassing behaviour.”
According to the Sun, Wallace is also accused of making fatphobic comments by accusers.
The Telegraph adds that an unnamed producer on MasterChef raised the alarm about Wallace too but says “nothing was done”.
The TV star’s lawyers say “it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature”, BBC News reported.
A BBC spokesman said it takes any issues raised “seriously” and “any behaviour which falls below the standards expected by the BBC will not be tolerated”.
Earlier this week, Celebrity Masterchef winner Emma Kennedy said she had complained about Wallace’s behaviour when she was on the show in 2012.
On Thursday, the cooking programme’s production company Banijay UK said the BBC received complaints from individuals in relation to “historical allegations of misconduct” while working with Wallace.
On Friday, the charity Ambitious About Autism dropped him as an ambassador citing the “recent allegations”.
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Social media
On Saturday, Wallace shared a bizarre message on social media amid mounting claims about his misconduct over several years.
Wallace shared a picture of a gingerbread man in what appeared to be whipped cream on Saturday morning to his 202,000 Instagram followers.
The image was accompanied by the message: “Enjoy your weekend”.
On Thursday, Wallace thanked his followers in an Instagram video, saying: “I would like to thank all the people getting in touch, reaching out and showing their support.
“It’s good of you, thank you very much.”