Gregg Wallace says allegations of misconduct come from “middle-class women of a certain age”

nme.com:

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, while the presenter himself posted a video on social media thanking fans for showing him support.This morning (December 1), Wallace took to his Instagram story to say 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?”A day after the initial reports, more women came forward with further allegations, with one claiming that Wallace regularly talked inappropriately about sex, domination and spanking while working on the Channel 5 show Gregg Wallace’s Big Weekends in 2019.Then, yesterday (November 30) it was reported that the BBC was made aware of allegations against the presenter in a letter sent in 2022, but no further investigation took place.The letter in question outlined a “pattern of behaviour” which “clearly fails.