Londoner’s Diary
As a wise man probably once said, you know it’s trouble when Piers Morgan is taking the moral high ground. The former TalkTV presenter has joined the ranks of “middle-class women of a certain age” criticising Gregg Wallace for his alleged behaviour on the set of MasterChef.
“He’s obviously behaved like a bit of a knob for a very long time in the workplace and a lot of women didn’t like it. What’s surprising to me is that it took so long to come out,” Morgan told The Londoner.
Wallace is facing complaints from 13 people about inappropriate behaviour on MasterChef, ranging from lewd sexual comments to taking his clothes off in front of the crew. The majority of the accusers are women, and more have come forward since then. Wallace strenuously denies the allegations and his legal team have said “"it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature."
While Morgan says the pair have never met, Wallace reminds him of Ricky Gervais’s hapless character in The Office. “He’s kind of like the real life David Brent, and it’s like mate, you’ve got to move with the times a bit,” he said. “The old Millwall banter isn’t playing quite like it used to.”
Morgan was speaking to The Londoner at Santa Rita’s Cigar Smoker of the Year Dinner, where he was crowned the winner. The event was held at Boisdale in Canary Wharf and previous winners have included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ray Winstone and Frasier star Kelsey Grammer. The evening was compered by food writer Tom Parker-Bowles, who Morgan described as “my favourite royal”.
In his speech Morgan admitted that he was “not a massive cigar smoker” and only has “about four to five a year”, though his favourite possession is a half-smoked cigar which belonged to Churchill.
