Under fire MasterChef host Gregg Wallace issued a video response to allegations against him of inappropriate work behaviour – only to cause fresh fury against him

Gregg Wallace took to social media on Sunday to defend himself against accusations of inappropriate work behaviour – but sparked a furious backlash in response.

The 60-year-old TV cooking judge has come under fire in the past week over his alleged behaviour while working on his BBC shows. Gregg, who has hosted MasterChef since 2005, has already denied all the allegations against him through his representatives, but took actions into his own hands on Sunday morning.

Turning to Instagram, the cooking expert took aim at those making accusations against him and suggested he has had no complaints over the past 20 years of working on screens. He described his accusers as “a handful of middle class women of a certain age” and also claimed female contestants on MasterChef had made sexual comments of their own.

His rebuttal has sparked a furious backlash from other social media users – with many slamming him for his tone deaf response to the crisis. Former MP Anna Soubry was among those to pan the star for his comments, writing on X: “‘It’s yer ‘ormones luv’ Gregg 2gs Wallace proving he’s not an odious misogynist.”

Gregg Wallace has sparked a backlash after issuing a video statement about allegations against him ( 
Image:
Instagram)

Former MP Anna Soubry was among those hitting back at Gregg ( 
Image:
AFP/Getty Images)

Elsewhere, Location, Location, Location presenter Kirstie Allsopp has furiously hit out at Gregg. She also addressed her own experience with him which left her feeling “embarrassed.” In a post on X, she said: “Within 1hr of meeting Gregg Wallace he told me of a sex act that he & his partner at the time enjoyed ‘every morning’, she’d just left the room, we were filming a pilot. Did he get off on how embarrassed I was? It was totally unprofessional.” She ended the post by saying: “I’m a #MiddleClassWomanOfaCertainAge.”

Former Scottish Conservative leader, Dame Ruth Davidson has also hit out at Gregg. In a post on X, she commented: “I mean, this is going to be taught in future years as a stellar example of how **not** to do defensive comms. My God.”

Another user on X mocked Gregg for his Instagram Stories videos, writing: “Gregg Wallace explaining how he is totally innocent and it’s all the fault of ‘middle-class women’.” While another blasted the star’s press team for failing to intervene, writing: “Who advised Gregg Wallace to say complaints were coming from women ‘of a certain age’?!?! Has he really got no idea of how that would sound?!”

Kirstie Allsopp hit out at Gregg on social mediaAnother referenced the fact that Sir Rod Stewart this week slammed Gregg for reportedly reducing his wife, Penny Lancaster, to tears while she was a contestant on MasterChef in 2021. The X user wrote: “Will somebody please shut Gregg Wallace up. I always knew what a vulgar and brash man he is but his latest broadside at a handful of women of a certain age making allegations really does take the biscuit. Rod Stewart got it absolutely right.”

And another typed: “I don’t think Gregg Wallace’s defence of “At the end of the day, the women who made these allegations about me are miserable old cows” is going to win him any sympathy.” And another, without mincing their words, wrote: “I bet Gregg Wallace thinks that he’s done a good job of rebutting the allegations against him. All he’s done is show what a misogynistic p**ck he is.”

In his Instagram Stories videos, Gregg said: “I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years. Amateur, Celebrity and Professional MasterChef. And in that time, I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life. And apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time. In the newspaper I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle class women of a certain age, just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn’t right.”

He continued in a second video: “In 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants, on MasterChef have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo. Can you imagine?”

And in a further video message to fans, he commented: “This is important to me. Twenty years of doing Celebrity MasterChef, Amateur, Professional, Eat Well For Less, Inside the Factory… Do you know how many staff, all different sorts of staff, can you imagine the people I’ve worked with? Do you know how many staff complained about me in that time? … Absolutely none. Zero. Seriously.”