GREGG Wallace’s second wife revealed marriage to the MasterChef star was “utter hell” years before his “sexual comments” probe.
Wallace stepped back from the BBC1 cooking show last month after complaints about inappropriate behaviour over a number of years.
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His second wife Denise Lovell previously claimed Wallace was an unfaithful womaniser obsessed with sex.
Denise met Wallace in 1991 and moved into his flat just off south London’s Old Kent Road after a date at Stringfellows nightclub.
She did not know that Wallace’s first marriage to Christine Harrison in 1988 had lasted just six weeks.
Denise opened up about the marriage in an unpublished 2012 interview with the Mail, before her death in 2017.
The interview has now been published in light of the probe into Wallace’s alleged inappropriate behaviour.
In the interview, Denise described future TV star Wallace as a “very sexual man”.
She was asked her thoughts on Gregg’s third marriage to Heidi Brown which was collapsing at the time after just 14 months.
Denise said: “If my own experience is anything to go by it will have been utter hell and very, very lonely.”
She told how Wallace would rarely be at home and would often be in a bad mood.
Wallace admitted seeing “other women” in his 2012 autobiography, Life on a Plate.
In 2004 Denise allegedly found out that Wallace had been cheating on her with one of his employees.
Denise claimed that she had long suspected the affair before discovering that Wallace and his lover had gone on holiday to Turkey.
She threw Gregg out – claiming he only took a collection of dirty magazines which he kept hidden in the garage.
The couple divorced in 2004, shortly before Wallace’s TV career took off.
She walked away with just £30,000 after the family’s remortgaged home was sold.
Denise claimed that she suffered a nervous breakdown following the break-up.
While she was recovering, the couple’s two children went to live with Wallace at his new home in Kent.
Heartbroken Denise struggled to make ends meet while Gregg raked in millions through his TV fame.
‘DIFFICULT AND NEEDY’
Gregg’s third wife Heidi, who was 17 years his junior, described him as a “difficult man” and “quite needy” after they broke up.
Wallace is currently married to his fourth wife Anne-Marie Sterpini, who is 22 his junior and whom he met on Twitter.
The couple wedded in a lavish 2016 ceremony and have a four-year-old son called Sid.
Wallace later told how he had not wanted to become a father again – but agreed on the condition Anne-Marie got hired help.
He said he was “not happy swapping my young, fun, sexy girlfriend for an exhausted mum”.
NEW LOW
As the probe into Wallace continues, it appears he BBC has ‘deleted him’ from iPlayer and made significant changes to some of its shows.
Programmes including Inside The Factory and MasterChef previously heavily featured Wallace in pictures and descriptions, which now appear to have changed.
BBC viewers have spotted the change and were quick to take to social media to discuss it.
At the end of last month, Wallace stepped away from BBC show MasterChef after an investigation was launched into an initial 13 historical claims spanning across 17 years.
Wallace’s lawyers have strongly denied he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.
Among those to accuse the presenter of conducting himself inappropriately are former Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, who claimed he told stories and jokes of a “sexualised nature” while filming Celebrity MasterChef.
These included allegations Wallace walked into the studio naked apart from a “sock over his penis”, mimed a sex act as a worker knelt to clean his trousers, and made a “rape joke”.
Wallace posted a video on Instagram describing his accusers as “middle-class women of a certain age” – before later apologising for the remark.
Wallace, under investigation by MasterChef producers Banijay UK, was scheduled to appear on the BBC several times this Christmas.
Yet the BBC has now axed the episodes featuring Wallace, after a former MasterChef staffer — who worked on the show from 2007 to 2010 — told The Sun she knew of at least six production members who raised concerns about Wallace’s conduct.
They said: “I heard from five female colleagues that they had issues with Gregg, including comments he made which weren’t appropriate for a workplace.
“There was a male staffer too who raised an issue about the language Gregg used when speaking to him.
“Nothing ever seemed to be done to properly address it. It was like the worst-kept secret in the TV industry.”
Gregg Wallace – MasterChef scandal in Brief
GREGG Wallace has stepped down from his MasterChef hosting role after a probe into alleged inappropriate behaviour. But what’s the situation?
Regular MasterChef host Gregg Wallace is currently the subject of a probe after an investigation was launched into his alleged misconduct over a number of years.
Gregg has been accused of making sexual remarks to 13 colleagues including Beeb anchor Kirsty Wark – accusations he denies.
The 60-year-old has now stepped away from the BBC show while historical misconduct allegations against him are investigated.
Yet the former greengrocer spoke out on social media to blast the “women of a certain age” who he claimed were behind the allegations.
The cooking show’s production company, Banijay UK, has said law firm Lewis Silkin would lead the investigation into Wallace’s alleged misconduct.
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