Gregg Wallace apologises for ‘middle-class women of a certain age’ comments

He said he 'wasn't in a good head space' when he made the remarks

On Sunday, the MasterChef presenter posted a video on Instagram in which he said complaints against him had come "from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age just from Celebrity MasterChef."

But the 60-year-old has now apologised for any offence he caused with his comments.

In a video on Instagram posted on Monday afternoon, 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 head space when I posted it. I've been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone, under seige, yesterday, when I posted it.

"It's obvious to me I need to take some time out while this investigation is under way. I hope you understand and I do hope that you will accept this apology."

Last week, MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK announced that Wallace would be stepping away from MasterChef after almost 20 years whilst an investigation is carried out into allegations of historic misconduct.

This was followed by a report from BBC News which detailed claims from 13 people about Wallace’s conduct from 2005 to 2022.

As more people came forward with allegations over the weekend, Wallace took to social media on Sunday to single out “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”.

In the video posted yesterday, Wallace said that in his 20 years of doing MasterChef he had "worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life."

He continued: “And apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time.

“Now, 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.”

On Monday, a spokesman for Downing Street described the comments as "inappropriate and misogynistic."

A number of celebrities have come forward with allegations around Wallace's conduct.

In a statement confirming he would be stepping away from MasterChef, Banijay UK said: “This week the BBC received complaints from individuals in relation to historical allegations of misconduct while working with presenter Gregg Wallace on one of our shows.

“Whilst these complainants have not raised the allegations directly with our show producers or parent company Banijay UK, we feel that it is appropriate to conduct an immediate, external review to fully and impartially investigate.”

The statement added: “While this review is under way, Gregg Wallace will be stepping away from his role on MasterChef and is committed to fully co-operating throughout the process."

Wallace and his lawyers strongly deny any wrong doing.

The presenter has featured on various BBC shows during his career, including Saturday Kitchen, Eat Well For Less, Supermarket Secrets, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals, and was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2014.

He was made an MBE for services to food and charity last year.