Melanie Sykes has revealed she made an informal complaint about Gregg Wallace, saying that having to work with him on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021 was the reason why she quit TV.
On Monday night the BBC rejected calls to pull the cookery show from its scheduled slot, on a day Wallace apologised for dismissing his accusers as “middle-class women of a certain age”.
Two more episodes of MasterChef: the Professionals are due to air this week, on Tuesday night and Thursday. The BBC has insisted they will be shown as planned.
Wallace stepped back from his role on MasterChef last week. Allegations of past misconduct – including three of inappropriate touching – are being investigated by Banijay, the programme’s production company.
Sykes used a YouTube video to expand on comments that she had originally made about Wallace in her autobiography, Illuminated, which was published last year. In it, she wrote that “the MasterChef experience continued to be an eye-opener, and some unprofessional behaviour on set was jaw-dropping”.
In the YouTube video, she addressed what she described as last week’s “bombshell” news around Wallace and said: “Every time Gregg came over to the desk, I didn’t really like him being around.”
Sykes also said that she had complained after her stint on the show, adding: “I said I didn’t want to make a formal complaint because I’d spend all my time in litigation and I think that is one of the reasons why people don’t go for it.”
Her comments came as Vanessa Feltz claimed that Wallace had, on first meeting a friend of hers, described in a BBC lift a sex act he had performed.
Feltz also used YouTube to make her comments, referring to a friend who did not know Wallace, had never met him before and was in a lift with “a young girl” who worked on another show.
“So the three of them were going up in the lift together and completely unprompted Gregg Wallace described a sex act that he had performed on his then wife that morning,” she said. “So my friend had not met Greg Wallace before, hadn’t asked him about his sex life. Was simply taking him to participate in a BBC programme, and the young lady in the lift was just an innocent passenger.”
She added: “So this is something that a very close friend and associate of mine told me about at the time. What did anyone do about it? Of course, absolutely nothing.”
The claims by Feltz and Sykes came amid mounting pressure on the BBC to take Wallace off air while allegations about sexual comments and inappropriate touching by the 60-year-old are investigated.
Stephen Fry told Sky News on Tuesday morning that it was “unbelievably foolish” of Wallace to publish his “middle-class women of a certain age” video.
He said: “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.”
Jess Phillips – the Labour MP and minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls – said on Tuesday that she was comfortable with MasterChef continuing to air while the host Wallace was investigated over his alleged behaviour.
She told BBC Breakfast: “Gregg Wallace isn’t the only person on MasterChef. If it was just the Gregg Wallace show, then I could understand that you would immediately go, yeah, just take it off the air.”
The review will be conducted by the law firm Lewis Silkin, Banijay has confirmed. Wallace’s lawyers have said he has denied any sexually harassing behaviour.