Gregg Wallace apologises over “women of a certain age” comments

nme.com:

“middle class women of a certain age”.On Thursday (November 28), it was announced that the presenter was stepping down from MasterChef after a series of complaints were made to the BBC.The allegations included a pattern of inappropriate sexual comments and actions made by Wallace to 13 people who worked with him over a period of 17 years, with the corporation passing the allegations onto Wallace’s representatives shortly before they were made public.Wallace’s lawyers said it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.Wallace posted a video addressing the allegations, in which he said he has worked with more than 4,000 contestants throughout his career “of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life”.“Apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time,” Wallace says, adding, “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.”Then, in a second video, he goes on to say: “In 20 years, over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks, or sexual innuendo, can you imagine?”Following widespread backlash, Wallace has now apologised.

In a follow-up video posted to his Instagram story, 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 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.