LONDON: An inquiry into complaints of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour by a BBC presenter of the long-running popular series “MasterChef” Monday upheld 45 allegations against him.
The lengthy probe, commissioned by production company Banijay, examined 83 accusations against Gregg Wallace after more than a dozen people came forward in November to complain of his behaviour since 2005.
The inquiry’s report substantiated, among others, 16 claims that he made sexually explicit comments, 12 instances of inappropriate jokes, seven allegations of bullying and three complaints that he was found in a state of undress. It also confirmed one allegation of unwanted touching.
The BBC has apologised to everyone affected by Wallace’s behaviour and said in a statement on Monday it has “no plans” to work with him in the future.
“The investigation details a substantial number of allegations of inappropriate conduct spanning 19 years. This behaviour falls below the values of the BBC and the expectations we have for anyone who works with or for us,“ it added.
Wallace has repeatedly denied the accusations, but sparked a further backlash last year when he blamed them on “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”.
He wrote on Instagram last week that the report “exonerates me of all the serious allegations ... and finds me primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018”.
He said he had been hired as the “cheeky greengrocer”, a person with “warmth, character and rough edges” but now in a “sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem”.
He maintained he had been diagnosed with autism “but nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over twenty years”.
The BBC cancelled two special Christmas shows of “MasterChef” amid the furore, but no final decision has been made yet on whether to air the latest season filmed last year, the organisation said.
It conceded that “opportunities were missed to address this behaviour ... We accept more could and should have been done sooner”.
The inquiry said it had looked into Wallace’s autism claims saying they were relevant in understanding his difficulty reading social cues and use of humour as a “masking technique”.
The furore was only the latest scandal to hit the taxpayer-funded British broadcaster.
Another prime-time show, “Strictly Come Dancing”, was thrown into crisis in 2024 amid bullying accusations.
And former top news anchor, Huw Edwards, pleaded guilty in July 2024 to making indecent pictures of children, narrowly avoiding jail in a stunning fall from grace. – AFP
