Gregg Wallace has returned to social media months after a MasterChef scandal saw him accused of inappropriate behaviour.
The 60-year-old TV host was replaced by food critic and I’m a Celebrity star Grace Dent on the programme after it emerged that the presenter was facing allegations of inappropriate sexual comments from 13 people across a range of shows over a 17-year period.
Wallace bullishly responded to the allegations by posting a video on social media claiming that the accusations had come from “middle-class women of a certain age”, but later apologised and said he “wasn’t in a good headspace” when he made the post.
Wallace went silent on social media in late 2024 but returned to Instagram four months later on Tuesday (4 February) with a video recipe tutorial for making protein pancakes.
“Easy n healthy Gregg Wallace Health,” he wrote in the caption, sharing various clips showing the step-by-step process of adding protein powder to the pancake mix.
He was met with supportive comments from fans, with one writing: “Good to have you back,” and another adding, “Back where you belong”.
Wallace is currently under investigation by the BBC over the allegations.
Addressing the allegations, he initially said: “I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years, amateur, celebrity and professional MasterChef, and I think, in that time, I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life.
“Apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time.“I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age, just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn’t right. In 20 years, over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks, or sexual innuendo? Can you imagine?”
However, when Wallace faced backlash for the “middle class woman” comments, he said: “I want to apologise for any offence that I caused with my post yesterday, and any upset I may have caused to a lot of people.
“I wasn't in a good head space when I posted it. I've been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone, under siege, yesterday, when I posted it.”
He concluded: “It's obvious to me I need to take some time out while this investigation is under way. I hope you understand and I do hope that you will accept this apology.”
In December, director and producer Dawn Elrick said she sent a letter to the BBC in 2022 with a number of anonymous accounts from people who alleged they “have experienced sexism within the TV industry”.
This included the presenter allegedly making lewd comments and asking for personal phone numbers of female production staff, the claims said.
The emergence of the letter, shared in an Instagram post by Elrick in December 2024, came as a report published by The Times claimed that the BBC had been aware of Wallace’s alleged behaviour as far back as 2017.
Shannon Kyle, who ghostwrote Wallace’s memoir Life On A Plate, also claimed Wallace touched her bottom during a television appearance and frequently rubbed her thigh whenever he changed gears in his car.
The most disturbing incident, she told BBC Newsnight, occurred when Wallace answered his front door wearing only a towel, which he then dropped in front of her as she entered his home to work on the book.
“I felt quite vulnerable because I’m on my own in a flat with a man. He’s naked,” Kyle told BBC Newsnight. She added that she had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before beginning the project.
“I was worried about losing the job... because I’d given up all the work for this job. So I thought to myself... I’m just going to try and navigate this, [I’ll] just try and push on through,” she said. “It was just really revolting.”
A statement from Wallace’s lawyers to BBC News said: “Our client has denied that he has engaged in any such behaviour, and he specifically denies any sexual misconduct with Ms Kyle.”
