Jeremy Clarkson has defended under-fire stars Gino D’acampo, Gregg Wallace and Wynne Evans in a rant against ‘cancel culture’.
Celebrity chef Gino D’acampo is facing claims of engaging in threatening and sexually inappropriate behaviour while on-set of shows. He has strongly denied the allegations.
Evans, known for starring in the GoCompare adverts, was axed from the Strictly Come Dancing live tour for an “inappropriate” comment made at its launch.
Wallace, the former co-host of BBC’s MasterChef, was last year accused of inappropriate behaviour by 13 people across a range of shows over a 17-year period, which he also denied.
Defending the men, broadcaster Clarkson argued that none were alleged to have done “something illegal”, and that they had been ‘cancelled’ for saying or doing things others found offensive.
Writing in The Sun newspaper, he said: “None of them is accused of doing something illegal. They just said something or did something which someone found offensive. And that’s that. It doesn’t even have to be a current misdemeanour.”
He added: “It could be a tweet you sent when you were 17. Or something you said to your brother when you were four.
“And think about it. Can you say, hand on heart, that you have never said or done anything which might be deemed, in the court of social media, to be out of order?
“There might be a few people, I guess, whose crimes are limited to running through a field of wheat.”
The 64-year-old argued that ‘cancelled’ celebrities had had “no trial,” and “no chance to mount a defence,” leaving them on the “scrapheap”.
“In other words, you have your five minutes of fame and then. because we live in a world where everyone is offended by everything, it’ll be followed by 50 years of being a hermit,” he added.
D’Acampo, the Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip star has "firmly denied" the allegations against him, saying they were "simply not in my nature" and described them as "deeply upsetting".
Amid the controversy, D’Acampo shared a video of himself last week hugging fans as he visited an Asda store to promote his new cookbook.
