Dame Prue Leith has defended Gregg Wallace over allegations about his behaviour, stating that he should not be dismissed.
The presenter, who has temporarily stepped back from hosting the BBC cooking show, is facing historical misconduct allegations which are currently under external review.
The 60-year-old also confronts new harassment accusations, including inappropriate touching of a woman at an event and making unwanted physical contact with another while filming a separate show.
His legal team has categorically denied that he engages in sexually harassing behaviour, and Wallace himself has strongly refuted all allegations levelled against him.
Great British Bake Off’s Dame Prue has voiced her opinion on the matter, asserting that while Wallace shouldn’t lose his job, TV producers and executives need to enforce strict behavioural standards for presenters.
Speaking on Times Radio, the 84-year-old Dame Prue stated: “I’m a great believer in due process… He should just stay off social media because he’s just digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole because he’s too insensitive to understand how offensive it is. But that’s his problem, that he’s insensitive. He hasn’t, that I can see, disobeyed the law.”
Dame Prue has voiced her opinion on the recent controversy, stating: “I don’t believe people should be cancelled or sacked. I can see why you would ask somebody to step aside while they investigate things, which I suppose is what they’re doing. But I think the tragedy in this is that I bet you Gregg has no idea what he’s done wrong”, reports the Mirror.
However, while she doesn’t advocate for Gregg’s dismissal, she feels television executives could be firmer with their talent.
She elaborated in her discussion with Cathy Newman, criticising TV chiefs for being “weak” in handling stars like Gregg Wallace. She remarked: “Yes, very weak. For goodness sake, they can replace Gregg Wallace. They can replace anybody. So they should be tough with their presenters. They should be very clear about whatever the rules are.”
Further to her commentary, Dame Prue added: “I do think they’ve been weak. But I don’t want to say that he should be sacked because I don’t know what the crime is.”
Accusations against Gregg have surfaced, alleging inappropriate behaviour including groping an individual’s reara serious claim tantamount to sexual assault.
The negative atmosphere reportedly instigated by Wallace has also been echoed by MasterChef staff and past contestants, including notable faces such as Emma Kennedy and Kirsty Wark. Adding to the charges, Gregg’s own ghostwriter Shannon Kyle voiced allegations on Victoria Derbyshire’s NewsNight program on Wednesday.
Wallace has been accused of making a British Sign Language interpreter sign inappropriate phrases. An attendee at the BBC Good Food Show alleged that Wallace asked the interpreter to sign “big boobs” and “sexy bum” at the NEC Arena in Birmingham in 2012.
“There was a British Sign Language interpreter there and he wandered over to her at one point and just said: ‘Do you have to sign everything I say? ‘ And she said yes, and then he just started saying, ‘big boobs’, ‘sexy bum’ this sort of thing, in order to get her to sign it. It was like he could control her, I suppose,” the attendee told the Guardian.
Gregg is facing allegations from 13 individuals across various shows over a 17-year period, as revealed by BBC News on Thursday, with many more sharing their experiences since. The presenter is “committed to fully cooperating throughout the process” during the BBC‘s investigation, according to a statement from Banijay UK, the show’s production company.
He has also stepped down from his role on the show during the investigation. On Sunday morning, Gregg took to social media to dispute the accusations, claiming they came from “middle-class women of a certain age”, leading Ulrika to comment that his “ignorance and arrogance knows no bounds”.
He later issued a heartfelt apology and announced that he would be taking a break from social media.