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A report into Gregg Wallace’s conduct on MasterChef has found more than half of the allegations against him have been substantiated, including one of “unwanted physical contact”.
Up to 83 allegations were made against the TV presenter, with the majority of the substantiated claims relating to inappropriate sexual language and humour, but also culturally insensitive and racist comments, reports BBC News.
MasterChef‘s production company Banijay UK has shared a summary of its report into historical allegations of misconduct against Wallace, carried out by independent law firm Lewis Silkin.
The report said the number of sustained allegations made his return to MasterChef “untenable”.
According to Sky News, the upheld allegations included 12 claims he made inappropriate jokes and innuendo, 16 reports that he made sexually explicit comments, two allegations that he made sexualised comments to or about someone, four complaints that he made culturally insensitive or racist comments, three claims that he was in a state of undress, seven allegations of bullying and one allegation of unwanted touching.
Nearly all of the allegations against Wallace were related to behaviour which is said to have taken place between 2005 and 2018, with just one substantiated allegation occurring after 2018.
Last week it emerged Wallace had been sacked as MasterChef presenter, with reports of more than 50 fresh allegations against him.
Patrick Holland, chief executive of Banijay UK, called the report “uncomfortable reading”, but said its findings provided “valuable insight” for production teams moving forward.
“We are extremely sorry to anyone who has been impacted by this behaviour and felt unable to speak up at the time or that their complaint was not adequately addressed,” he told BBC News.
A BBC statement added: “Although the full extent of these issues were not known at the relevant time, opportunities were missed to address this behaviour – both by the production companies running MasterChef and the BBC. We accept more could and should have been done sooner.”
The BBC went on to apologise to “everyone who has been impacted by Mr Wallace’s behaviour”, and confirmed it has no plans to work with the presenter in future.
Wallace is yet to comment on the report’s findings.
The presenter initially stood down while an investigation was conducted after a series of complaints were made to the BBC.
Wallace’s lawyers previously also said that it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.
Ahead of the publication of the summary last week, Wallace had said he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.
He also went on to say his neurodiversity had “now formally (been) diagnosed as autism”, and that it was “suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of MasterChef”.
For more help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.
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