😮 “No worse than Bake Off” — Gregg Wallace issues late apology after MasterChef sacking, sparking fresh backlash as he defends remarks made before misconduct allegations surfaced

MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has issued a lengthy apology for his remarks on the show, after he was sacked from the BBC show following allegations of misconduct.

The former greengrocer, 61, was dropped following a report which upheld more than 40 allegations relating to his behaviour while filming the hit cooking show.

At the time, Gregg hit back at the allegations, instead blaming the complaints on ‘middle-class women of a certain age,’ and is now suing the BBC for £10,000 in damages.

However, Gregg has now taken to Substack to pen a 1,000 word admission, where he confessed he was ‘stupid,’ but noted the innuendos on MasterChef were ‘no worse’ than those on The Great British Bake Off.

He went on to add that he feels he was a victim of changing attitudes, and claimed he’d been ‘rewarded’ for using his ‘colourful’ language in the past.

In his post, Gregg began by apologising for his remark on ‘middle-class women of a certain age,’ saying: ‘Let’s start with the one thing I can say, without any doubt, that I got completely wrong.

‘When the media first reported the allegations made against me, I went on social media and dismissed the people making complaints as ‘middle-class women of a certain age’,

‘It was a stupid, defensive, and arrogant thing to say. I felt like I was being backed into a corner, and I lashed out. There’s no excuse for it. It was hurtful and wrong. It’s not what I truly believe, and I’m sorry for what I said.’

‘In that moment, I failed to listen, reflect, and respect. I’ve learned from that post that when you’re under fire, the first thing you should do is listen, not talk.

‘I’ve been doing a lot more of that over the past year, and as I work to move on with my life following last year’s investigation and my subsequent dismissal, I find it increasingly important to share my truth.’

Gregg went on: ‘That feeling of being backed into a corner was a reaction to a situation I still cannot fully comprehend. For twenty years, I presented as that loud, cheeky greengrocer off the telly.

‘It was a persona I adopted for the boisterous workplace environment, full of bawdy humour. I’ve always loved a bit of banter and a bit of a laugh, so I felt like I was fitting in on set, matching the culture that was engineered from the top down.

‘First thing in the morning, the directors would whip us up with energy and excitement, a sentiment it was my job to reflect.

‘They’d hype you up because that’s what they wanted for the show. You’re unscripted, you’re bouncing off the walls, and you’re all trying to make each other laugh.’

Discussing the humour on the MasterChef set, Gregg insisting the ‘colourful’ language and jokes were akin to those on Bake Off.

He added: ‘We’d make jokes you’d see on any episode of Bake Off, suggestive comments like the ones that regularly show up on The 1% Club.

‘I would bring real high energy into that studio.

‘And yes, many of the jokes were sexual. I relied on innuendo quite heavily. Food is full of innuendo. Spotted dick, nuts, the rim of a glass, little tarts… We leaned into it.

‘All of us. I’d see cameramen making phallic shapes out of leftover ingredients on the bench. I’d join in conversations about sex and relationships because that’s what everyone in the studio was talking about.

‘I wasn’t a lone wolf making crude comments in a silent office; I was part of an ensemble that was noisy, energetic, and yes, sometimes crude.

‘That was the job. That was the culture. I behaved the way I thought was expected of me. My intent was always to participate appropriately, and I believed I was doing so.

‘My job was to put contestants at ease and to get the lines production needed for the edit. I did it the only way I knew how: trying to make people feel like part of the group.

‘I thought it was working. I genuinely thought everyone thought it was hilarious. I saw the people around me making these jokes and assumed they were a normal, encouraged part of workplace behaviour, and that when I did it, it would be perceived the same way.

‘Nobody ever told me otherwise. Nobody, not a director, producer, or colleague, ever said, ”Oi, Gregg, pack it in”. In fact, it was the opposite. The energy was encouraged.

‘Then, in 2018, the rules changed. Or, at least, they seemed to…’

Gregg went on to reveal that he was given a formal warning for inappropriate and unprofessional language after a complaint was made on another show.

He said: ‘It surprised me. It felt like a switch had flipped. Suddenly, the very thing I’d been rewarded for across five TV shows was a problem…

‘It came as a complete shock, and I didn’t understand it. If the jokes were a problem, why was everyone still laughing? If the culture was toxic, why was I the only one being singled out?

‘That same behaviour I was being called out for appeared to be tolerated and encouraged in others, and I found myself wondering what was allowed and what was a violation, because the distinction was never fully articulated.

‘It forced me to look at my behaviour myself and try to understand what went wrong. Did I assume familiarity where it hadn’t been established?

‘Did I lack the self-awareness to recognise where and how what I was doing wasn’t the same as what everyone else was doing? Iwasn’t trying to test boundaries, but locate them.

‘From that day on, work became a terrifying place.

‘I stopped socialising with anyone. I’d go to the production office and ask if I’d said anything wrong that day.

‘I’d phone bosses late at night, asking if I was going to get in trouble. I was an unscripted presenter, paid to be energetic and funny, who was now terrified of opening his mouth.

‘Yet the damage had already been done, because the majority of the complaints upheld in last year’s investigation were pre-2018. All but one, to the best of my knowledge.

‘And the vast majority were about my language in the setting I described above. Beyond the language, the investigation upheld a handful of other incidents. I’ll tell you what they were.’

Wallace was dismissed by the BBC following a seven-month investigation. where 45 complaints were upheld against him, including inappropriate sexual language and humour, ‘being in a state of undress’ and one instance of unwelcome physical contact.

Discussing the ‘state of undress’ incident, Gregg said the moment in question related to someone ‘entering his dressing room while he was getting changed, and him taking his shirt off to have a microphone fitted, and him lifting my t-shirt to show off my six-pack’.

Gregg said: ‘Additionally, 18 years ago in a closed studio with only myself and three friends present, I came out of my dressing room wearing a shirt and a sock over my bits. Everybody fell about laughing.

‘The investigation confirmed that everyone present was amused. Nobody was offended. Furthermore, the investigation confirmed that none of these instances were sexually motivated.

‘There was also one incident of physical contact. Seventeen years ago, at a party, I had my arm around a woman while we were talking and had my hand on her bum for at least five minutes. I believed it was consensual.

‘I confirmed this myself during the investigation, and the investigation noted that I believed it to be consensual.

‘These are the most serious allegations against me. Not the assumptions of groping, flashing, sexual harassment, and bullying that have been attributed to me.’

Gregg then went on to say: ‘Now, I want to be very clear. I am sorry for the upset I caused.

‘It was never, ever my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable. I can see now that it would be hard for someone to complain about a crude joke if everyone around them was laughing along, including management.

‘I also never considered that contestants might not have spoken up for fear it would affect their chances in the competition. Those were failings on my part, and I take accountability for them.

‘I accept responsibility for the impact of my actions. What I question is whether the standards by which I was judged were knowable in advance.’

Since being dropped from MasterChef, Gregg has attempted to reinvent himself as a personal trainer, sharing healthy recipes on his account on TikTok.

Gregg was dropped by the BBC following a report which upheld more than 40 allegations relating to his behaviour while filming the hit cooking show.

Just weeks later, his longtime presenting partner John Torode was also pulled from the BBC show after an allegation emerged he had used ‘extremely offensive racist language in 2018’, which he claims to have ‘no recollection of’.

In October last year, the BBC hit back at Gregg’s £10,000 damages claim after it was revealed he was said to have lodged a lawsuit at London’s High Court and vowed to ‘not go quietly’.

He was seeking the release of hundreds of pages of internal documents, which he claims would help clear his name and recover millions in lost earnings.

However, the BBC hit back at his claim for up to £10,000, as he alleged the broadcaster caused him ‘distress and harassment’ by not releasing the documents.

Lawyers for the BBC filed their defence, claiming their former star presenter is ‘not entitled to any damages’.

In the documents, seen by The Sun, the corporation says Gregg pursued his claim without giving any prior notice.

The BBC are quoted as saying: ‘That voluntary disclosure demonstrates the claimant has no basis to claim damages for distress in respect of the withholding of such information.’

According to The Sun, Gregg’s data was eventually released on October 7, after he first requested the documents in March.

Gregg, who revealed an autism diagnosis in 2025, was fired from BBC MasterChef following a nine-month sexual misconduct investigation, with reports that 50 more people had made fresh claims against him over his alleged inappropriate behaviour.

The greengrocer turned presenter insists that his at-times off-colour jokes and ‘banter’ were a sign that his autism meant he ‘didn’t know what was right’ to say in social situations.

Since then, he has accused the BBC of failing to provide enough support for his condition.

Friends of Wallace told The Times that he suffers from ‘autistic hypersensitivity’, which means he has an ‘oddity of filters and boundaries’.

The condition also means he has ‘an exaggerated sensory experience’, which means he is hypersensitive to ‘labels and tight clothing’ and is therefore unable to wear underwear.

Wallace had earlier said himself that he felt the BBC failed to provide enough support for his condition during his 20 years working on Masterchef.

‘My neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of MasterChef,’ Wallace said.

‘Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over 20 years.’

But the comments have not gone down well with neurodiversity charities, who rejected the notion that his condition could be attributed to his alleged behaviour in any way.