TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson, who claimed Gregg Wallace made a “rape joke” while she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef, has issued a furious response after he blamed “middle-class women of a certain age” for complaints.
Jonsson is one of several women who has accused Wallace of inappropriate behaviour in recent days after he stepped back from the cooking show on Thursday as a string of allegations emerged.
She did not hear the joke alleged but said that when another contestant walked off the set, she was told what had occurred. It allegedly happened when she was a contestant on an episode of the cooking competition in 2017.
On Sunday morning, Wallace posted a video on Instagram in which he claimed allegations against him had come from “middle-class women of a certain age”, and declared: “This isn’t right.”
Jonsson has since condemned his response, saying it showed he “has zero introspection or self-awareness”.
“When he made reference to women of a certain age I was just seething... I was just absolutely wild,” she told The Telegraph.
“My first reaction was just, ‘Keep digging, Gregg. Keep digging’ because this shows the arrogance of a man who has zero introspection or self-awareness.
“When we refer to women ‘of a certain age’, they tend to be women my age, over 50, which is ironic because we are some of the hardiest women out there. When I was starting out, we had to put up with all sorts of sexist, misogynistic comments, and we put up with them.
‘‘It’s the height of arrogance for him to say, ‘Oh it’s this small bunch, it’s this small cohort of people who are different’. No, Gregg, actually, it’s not about being different. It’s about being respectable and having some ability to not just read the room, but to read the world.”
His comments also sparked a backlash on social media, with a host of famous faces, including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, David Baddiel and Kirstie Allsopp, also responding.
Fearnley-Whittingstall appeared on the BBC and said Wallace was “not wise” to make comments like these, adding: “At the moment he should probably be listening.” Allsopp – who met Wallace when they were filming a pilot for a TV show – described the former MasterChef presenter as “totally unprofessional”.
Wallace faces allegations of inappropriate sexual comments from 13 people across a range of shows over a 17-year period, as reported by BBC News, which said it had sent a letter to the TV star’s representatives earlier this week.
Despite the complaints, the BBC confirmed to The Independent that future episodes of MasterChef: The Professionals, in which Wallace appears, are still slated to air, while two Christmas specials are planned for the festive season.
Over the weekend, it emerged that BBC executive Kate Phillips had reportedly raised concerns as far back as 2017 about Wallace’s behaviour, saying it was “unacceptable and cannot continue”.
The Independent has approached Wallace for comment. Wallace’s lawyers have said: “It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.”
