TV presenter Gregg Wallace has called for him to have the “space to heal”, after revealing he thought about suicide at the height of the furore over misconduct allegations made against him.
The 60-year-old stepped away from hosting BBC cooking competition MasterChef after a host of historical complaints came to light last year, which led to an external investigation by the show’s production company, Banijay UK.
On Saturday, he posted on Instagram saying that it has been “hard” to speak out about his mental health struggles and his family, but it “felt right”.
“Right now, I don’t want to add anything more. I’ve opened my heart, and that has to be enough,” Wallace also wrote.
“There will be a lot of noise, I get that; but I won’t be joining in. I need space to heal and to be with the people who know who I really am. I just wanted to let you know that there are no further comments at this time.”
This follows Wallace telling the Daily Mail that “nobody should be left on their own to face” a storm of complaints.
He added: “It’s very difficult to explain the pressure unless you’ve been through it. I thought about suicide all the time – ‘is my insurance up to date? Will Anna (Wallace’s wife) get some money? She doesn’t deserve this, it would be better if I wasn’t here’.”
The former greengrocer said he felt last year he “had to speak out because people were saying what they liked about me and it wasn’t true”, after he was criticised for saying on social media that the complaints were made by “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”.
Wallace claimed he had not been contacted by the BBC after the claims became public, and said that “feeling of being under attack, of isolation, of abandonment was overwhelming”.
He added: “You’re watching yourself get personally ripped apart, criticised, accused of all sorts of stuff over and over again. You’re thinking, ‘this isn’t true, it isn’t true, what’s coming next?’
“You don’t sleep, your chest races, your body feels like it’s shutting down because it can’t cope with the levels of stress. You feel really dirty and horrible because everybody is saying you’re a pervert.
“Women – big, respected personalities I thought I had a decent relationship with – were attacking me.”
He went on to claim production company Banijay arranged for a crisis mentor to support him, whom he said was a “life raft” he “clung to”.
Wallace admitted to putting a “sock over my private bits” and opening his dressing room door shouting “hooray”, but claimed he did this to three friends who were in the studio after filming had finished, rather than while it was taking place.
He also told the newspaper that allegations of inappropriate jokes were also “probably true”, saying they sounded “like the sort of comments I’d have made”.
The London-born presenter called the accusations he had groped crew members “absolutely not true”.
Wallace also said he was “very slow to wake up to the changing nature of the work environment” and added he had a “massive wake-up call” seven years ago that his “energetic greengrocer persona” was “becoming redundant”.
His lawyers previously told the BBC “it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature”.
The BBC previously said the corporation will not “tolerate behaviour that falls below the standards we expect” and will continue to champion “a culture that is kind, inclusive and respectful”.
Two MasterChef celebrity Christmas specials were pulled from the BBC’s schedule in December 2024.
Banijay UK previously said it continues to regularly update and strengthen its “MasterChef welfare processes”.
The MasterChef producer declined to comment on Wallace’s interview when contacted by the PA news agency.
Food critic Grace Dent will judge the forthcoming 20th series of Celebrity MasterChef alongside Wallace’s long-standing presenting partner John Torode.
Samaritans can be contacted free on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org.
Other sources of support are listed on the NHS “help for suicidal thoughts” webpage. Support is available around the clock, every day of the year.
