Melanie Sykes has claimed Gino D’Acampo’s “bad behaviour” was excused by bosses “because he’s Italian”.
Sykes, 54, worked with the Italian chef, 48, on ITV’s daytime cooking show Let’s Do Lunch... With Gino and Mel between 2011 and 2014.
D’Acampo is currently facing dozens of accusations of sexually inappropriate and “distressing” behaviour on TV sets over the last 12 years, which he denies.
Sykes has now spoken out about her experience of working with D’Acampo on her YouTube channel.
“Years ago there were some rumblings about the fact that the presenter that everybody is talking about at the moment went to some kind of etiquette, media training, because he’s Italian and the translation and he’s not quite getting it,” she said.
“It’s an insult to Italians and a stupid way of dealing with it, a very narrow-minded, dumba** way of responding to bad behaviour from a human being in the workspace.”
She continued: “I remember once when Gino said to me he can just go up to the powers that be and knock on the door and go in, he doesn’t need a meeting.
“He was quite pleased with himself that he could do that.”
She said she respected the hierarchy and would set up meetings through her agent, and felt like she had a “system to work through to get what I needed”.
D’Acampo’s representative told The Standard in response to Sykes’ claims: “Gino D’Acampo has vehemently denied all claims of inappropriate behaviour and has previously stated: ‘I would not do anything that I thought would upset or distress anyone. These allegations have never been raised with me before in over 80 productions.’”
Sykes has previously shared her experience with Gregg Wallace which led her to quit TV and has spoken out against ITV and the BBC.
Earlier this month, D’Acampo was accused of “horrendous” misconduct on various TV shows in an ITV News investigation.
He allegedly made “disgusting” sexual comments about whether he would sleep with his ITV co-star Holly Willoughby or her close friend, presenter Fearne Cotton.
The This Morning star has "firmly denied" the allegations and described them as "deeply upsetting".
"I have never been made aware of these matters previously and the allegations are firmly denied,” he said in a statement.
“I would not do anything that I thought would upset or distress anyone. This is simply not in my nature. I do not recognise the version of events being put to me."
