Gino D’Acampo has denied claims of sexually inappropriate behaviour made by women he worked with over a 12-year period in showbusiness.
The celebrity chef was subject to claims in an ITV news segment on Thursday after he was alleged to have made sexually inappropriate comments.
In one alleged incident, the Italian chef, 48, is said to have told a colleague that he would like to “like to turn me over and f*** me up the a** against the kitchen counter”.
D’Acampo rejected any claims of impropriety and said the allegations were “deeply upsetting”.
An ITV spokesperson said: “All of the concerns and complaints raised by those who have spoken to ITN describe behaviour which is inappropriate and unacceptable. Most of them were not reported to ITV at the time. Where issues have been raised with ITV, action has been taken.
"We can only act where we know that concerns have been raised, and will now be following up on those that had not previously been reported to us.”
What is Gino D'Acampo’s background?
As a passionate and enthusiastic chef, D’Acampo has been appearing on British television for 20 years whether as the in-house cook on This Morning or on his own shows such as Let’s Do Lunch and Gino’s Italian Escape.
He has written 17 cookery books and appeared on Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip, alongside Gordon Ramsay and Fred Sirieix. His fame has also gone beyond the cookery world, being crowned King of the Jungle on I’m a Celebrity in 2009.
Born in the Napoli area in 1976, D'Acampo moved to London via Spain in the nineties and worked his way up at restaurants before featuring in the development of Tesco ready meals.
And thanks to this experience, he featured on Great Food Live, a programme on UKTV Food.
His regular presence alongside former presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning led to greater exposure and opportunities in his own right.
He has now forged a huge personal brand and has 2.2 million Instagram followers.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the man who has propelled himself to be one of the most famous chefs in British TV.
In 1998, the Italian native was convicted of burglary, which led to a two year stint in prison.
When he was 21-years old, D’Acampo - who was working as a waiter at the time - was found to have left cigarette butts at the scene of a burglary - with the house he stole from belonging to none other than 80s teen idol Paul Young.
Forensic police matched the DNA from the discarded smokes at the Q-Tips frontman’s Mill Hill house, where it was reported that in excess of £4,000 worth of goods were stolen.
Among the items that D’Acampo bagged were guitars and a platinum disc.
The news of this misdemeanor reared its ugly head in 2009, as he was heading into I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here - which he went on to win.
Of the crime, D’Acampo told Birmingham Live: “It was a very crucial moment in my life. It was about embracing something negative and turning it into something positive.
"I was a very young boy... you make those mistakes. The secret is to learn and to move on."
Young was initially forgiving of D’Acampo’s crime, telling The Standard in 2011: “I don't hold it against him. He said it was bad and he apologised, and I did get most of the stuff back.
"Maybe he needed his wrist slapping and he got that. He said he was in a terrible place at that time and wanted to turn his life around."
However, as the years went by, the crime evidently ruminated with Young, and expressed “mixed feelings” over the incident after his wife passed.
He told the Mirror in 2019: “When Stacey went there were certain bits of music I never got back.
“Let's say that – and that hurt me.”
It wasn’t the end of the negative headlines for D’Acampo, however.
In 2023, it emerged that his restaurant in Liverpool was hit with poor hygiene ratings from the council’s Food Standard’s Agency.
An FOI released to the Liverpool Echo revealed that inspectors had found expired foods and a trolley in the kitchen, among the grievances filed.
Inspectors wrote: “Although you have a food safety management system in place, it became clear at the time of inspection that some of your procedures were not being followed in practice as noted above.”
Who is Gino D’Acampo married to?
D’Acampo married Jessica Stellina Morrison in 2002 and the pair have three children: Luciano, Rocco and Mia. His family regularly feature on his Instagram posts.
The pair met when D’Acampo was 18 and working in Sylvester Stallone’s Mambo King restaurant in Marbella, reports the Sun.
They moved to the UK together in 1995, having once already broken up, before settling down together.
D’Acampo and Morrison have now been together for more than three decades, recently celebrating their 31st anniversary as a couple with a ski trip.
“31 years together and still smiling like our first date,” he wrote in a picture with his wife.
Morrison wrote on her own Insta bio: “The wife of a funny little Italian, mother to the greatest kids on the planet, friends with so many special people, so I’m a pretty lucky lady.”
The two renewed their vows on their 20th anniversary, although D’Acampo has said that the reason the marriage has lasted so long is because they do not spend much time together.
“It's a good thing, I don't really want to know everything my wife does, because otherwise she will be boring to me,” he said, according to the Sun.
“There is a time where the family is together, when I’m with my wife and everybody to celebrate holidays and everything like that.
"But there has to also be a time when I do things by myself and when she does things by herself.”
