Loose Women panellist Nadia Sawalha said that Gregg Wallace proved he ‘is the problem’ in his torrent of social media posts after he stepped back from BBC series MasterChef last week

TV star Nadia Sawalha, 60, has blasted Gregg Wallace for his behaviour online after he stepped back from MasterChef last week.

Loose Women star Nadia won Celebrity MasterChef in 2007, and admitted that she didn’t have any bad experiences with Gregg, 60, during her time on the show. However, the ITV presenter shared that she’d lost patience with Gregg due to his Instagram Stories, saying she was “horrified” by how he’d reacted to the accusations made against him.

Last week, Gregg was put under investigation due to historic complaints that he’d made “sexual comments” on set of MasterChef, with Newsnight host Kirsty Wark is among 13 people who have accused the MasterChef presenter of making inappropriate sexual comments or jokes.

The BBC host stepped down from MasterChef amid the investigation, but responded to the accusations with a series of posts on Instagram. He apologised this morning for claiming complaints about his behaviour came from “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”, adding he will now “take some time out”.

Nadia won Celebrity MasterChef in 2007, and said she hadn’t heard about any of the accusations against Gregg ( 
Image:
Des Willie)

“When I saw his Stories at the weekend, to be quite frank, I was horrified by what he said,” Nadia revealed on the YouTube channel she shares with her husband Mark Adderley. Mark added that during his own time knowing Gregg: “I found him incredibly agreeable, very professional, just got on with it. You know, he had that sort of geezer chat and that geezer humour, but there was nothing untoward in anything that he said to me…” while explaining that he and Nadia “Hadn’t heard anything about him” before the fallout last week.

“I wasn’t… not surprised. I’d just never seen that or heard that myself. But I’m never surprised when I hear stories…” Nadia said of the claims. She added: “I’m 100%… I always believe – and maybe that’s wrong of me – I believe women first. You know, I don’t care, I just do. Because I know the way the world is tipped. But, in a court of law you are innocent until proven guilty… but with these numbers…”

Mark then jokingly said in reference to one of Gregg’s controversial posts: “But my God, he’s gone for middle-aged, middle class women!” “Everything about what Gregg says in all these Stories is the problem. It’s the problem that we have,” Nadia responded. “First and foremost, you get to an age where you think, do you know what? I don’t have to take this s**t anymore. You get to a position where you realise you don’t have to laugh at joked that leave you feeling uncomfortable. You don’t have to just pretend something didn’t happen just to keep the peace.”

She added: “And actually, Gregg, what I feel sad about, is that he has no idea how those younger women actually feel… I’m sorry to say, men of this age, you’ve got no idea what we are thinking about you really. You’ve got no idea. You think that you’re striding through life and everybody thinks you are rather nice.

“Well guess what? Most of them are going home going ‘Oh God that guy! I just can’t take one more of those jokes. I just can’t take one more of him just standing a bit too close.’ We have two daughters, 21 and 17 and when they come home after having to put up with lude comments and creepiness in clubs, it’s always people, men of a certain age and it’s THAT age!”

Gregg, who faces various allegations including making “inappropriate sexual jokes”, posted a video on his Instagram stories today to issue an apology. He said: “I want to apologise for any offence that I caused with my post yesterday and any upset I may have caused to a lot of people.

“I wasn’t in a good headspace when I posted it, I’ve been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone, under siege yesterday when I posted it. It’s obvious to me I need to take some time out, now while this investigation is under way. I hope you understand and I do hope you will accept this apology.”