MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has posted a bizarre update to his Instagram account amid fresh accusations that he groped three women.
The star, 60, stepped down from his role on the hit BBC cooking competition earlier this week after it was announced that producer Banijay was investigating historical allegations of misconduct.
The formal complaints, which included Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, claimed he’d made a series of ‘inappropriate sexual jokes’ and that the star walked around the studio ‘almost completely naked’ and ‘mimicked sex acts.’
In addition to the complaints above, three women have also come forward with allegations that the presenter groped them in different incidents on and off set.
With the star having stepped down from his MasterChef duties while the investigation is underway, Wallace has provided a cryptic update via his Instagram stories – posting a picture of a gingerbread man ensconced in what appears to be a pile of whipped cream.
The bizarre image comes accompanied with the caption ‘enjoy your weekend.’
He previously broke his silence with an Instagram video thanking those who had supported him so far.
Yesterday, he shared an image from an article by the Telegraph which compared him to controversial comedian Bernard Manning but described him as a ‘top bloke.’
This comes after he stepped down from his judging role while the probe into his alleged ‘sexual comments’ is ongoing.
The latest set of allegations accuse Wallace of groping three women in different incidents on and off set.
One former contestant has claimed Wallace groped her while she was on set and the cameras were rolling.
After she had moved away, Wallace allegedly later called her a ‘stupid cow’ for scalding her hand and ‘had her card marked’ when she called him disgusting.
Another woman claimed Wallace squeezed her bottom in a busy pub while he made a series of lewd comments.
Meanwhile, Celebrity MasterChef contestant Emma Kennedy claimed she witnessed him groping a camera assistant during a 2012 photo shoot.
In a recent statement, she said: ‘They knew then. They knew before then and they’ve known since.’
Kennedy said the photographer had a ‘young female assistant’ who was ‘bent over’ while dealing with equipment. She went on to say how he ‘took this as an opportunity to feel her arse. I told him it was inappropriate, I informed production.’
Former contestant Dr Kate Tomas has also accused him of sexual harassment while she was on MasterChef in 2008.
After refusing to return to the show, she claims that she complained but ‘nothing was said, nothing was done.’ She also accused him of being a ‘racist’ after he impersonated an Indian accent in front of an Indian co-worker.
Earlier this week, The Telegraph reported that a former production member filed a complaint alleging that he held her head and thrust his body toward her as she knelt to clean a mark from his trousers.
The complaint also detailed a time when he allegedly walked onto the studio naked bar a sock on his penis and was ‘very touchy feely’.
Elsewhere, one woman who worked with him on a travel show claimed he was ‘fascinated’ by the fact she was a lesbian and that his constant comments were ‘highly inappropriate’.
Celebrity MasterChef contestant and Newsnight host Wark, 69, recounted an alleged ‘sexualised’ joke he told her and said the claimed remarks were ‘really really in the wrong place’.
A number of famous faces have since come out to slam Wallace. This includes Sir Rod Stewart, who described him as ‘a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’ for his treatment of the musician’s wife, Penny Lancaster, when she appeared on the show in 2021.
After the investigation was announced, Wallace’s lawyers said it is ‘entirely false’ he engages in a ‘behaviour of a sexually harassing nature’.
In a statement, a spokesperson told PA: ‘We take any issues that are raised with us seriously and we have robust processes in place to deal with them.
‘We are always clear that any behaviour which falls below the standards expected by the BBC will not be tolerated.
‘Where an individual is contracted directly by an external production company we share any complaints or concerns with that company and we will always support them when addressing them.’
Metro has reached out to Wallace’s reps for comment.
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