Gregg Wallace has come under fire from disability charities after appearing to link misconduct claims against him with an autism diagnosis.
The 60-year-old television presenter is facing multiple accusations, including claims that he made inappropriate sexual jokes, asked for the phone numbers of female production staff, and behaved unprofessionally around female colleagues on set. Wallace has denied these allegations.
In a statement about an investigation into those claims, the former MasterChef host said that he had recently been formally diagnosed with autism, and suggested that his neurodiversity was “suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons” of the show.
He went on to add that TV bosses had failed to “investigate my disability” or “protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment”.
A friends of the presenter doubled down on the claims, suggesting Wallace could not wear underwear “because of his autistic hypersensitivity to labels and tight clothing”.
However, Seema Flower, founder of disabilities consultancy Blind Ambition, told BBC News that there was “no excuse” for inappropriate behaviour and asked: “Where does it leave us if we use autism as excuse to behave in whatever way we like?”
Emily Banks, founder of neurodiversity training body Enna, told the broadcaster that autism “doesn’t absolve anyone of responsibility, and it certainly doesn’t mean you can’t tell the difference between right and wrong”, while Dan Harris from the charity Neurodiversity in Business said that autism “is not a free pass for bad behaviour”.
A National Autistic Society spokesperson said: “Every autistic person is different, just like every non-autistic person is different, so it is important not to generalise or make judgements based on the actions, words or behaviour of any one individual.”
The remarks come just days before the publication of a report some of the claims made last year. It led to MasterChef production company Banijay commissioning a report on Wallace, overseen by the law firm Lewis Silkin.
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The presenter first stepped away from his role on MasterChef nine months ago, after the BBC received complaints about his conduct. Broadcaster Kirsty Wark claimed that Wallace told “sexualised” jokes while they were filming Celebrity MasterChef in 2011, while Location Location Location’s Kirsty Allsopp alleged that he made a comment to her about his sex life, leaving her “so embarrassed” that she thought she “might cry”.
Musician Sir Rod Stewart also claimed that Wallace had “humiliated” his wife, model and presenter Penny Lancaster, when she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef and accused him of being an “ill-mannered bully”.
The presenter initially responded to the accusations of inappropriate behaviour by claiming that they came from “a handful of middle class women of a certain age”, a comment that sparked considerable backlash.
Wallace later apologised, claiming that he “wasn’t in a good head space” when he shared the comments on social media.
His lawyers, meanwhile, said that “it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature”.
Wallace was later replaced by Grace Dent on the celebrity edition of the show. He was also dropped as an ambassador for the charity Ambitious About Autism.
On Tuesday (8 July), it was reported that Wallace had been sacked as a MasterChef host before the publication of the investigation’s findings, as BBC News said that it had been approached by more than 50 people with new claims about the presenter.
The claims, which Wallace denies, included allegations that he groped a MasterChef colleague.
On the same day, Wallace launched a lengthy tirade against the broadcaster, claiming that he had decided to “speak out” and share the findings of the months-long investigation into his on-set behaviour, which he described as “full and forensic”.
In a post shared on Instagram, he said that he “cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged to protect others”, and stated that the then-unpublished investigation “exonerates me of all the serious allegations which made headlines last year”.
The former greengrocer said that the report found him “guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018”. He apologised “without reservation”, adding: “I recognise that some of my humour and language, at times, was inappropriate.”
However, he maintained that the report showed the “most damaging claims” against him, “including allegations from public figures which have not been upheld”, to be “baseless”.
“I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer,” he continued. “A real person with warmth, character, rough edges and all. For over two decades, that authenticity was part of the brand.
“Now, in a sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem.”
The former Inside the Factory host added that he “will not go quietly” and “will not be cancelled for convenience”.
In response to Wallace’s statement, the BBC told The Independent: “Banijay UK instructed the law firm Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations against Gregg Wallace. We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings are published.”
