Sacked Gregg Wallace's 'heart attack' scare before 'groping' allegations released

Shamed MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has been sacked after 50 more people complained about him – but he has vowed to fight back. The 60-year-old accused BBC News of “peddling gossip” after it claimed to have received dozens of new complaints about him, ranging from sexual comments to groping. Wallace accepts his humour was “inappropriate” on the show. And a source close to him admits a social media video in which he lashed out at “middle-class women of a certain age” was a sackable offence.

But he still believes himself to be a victim and called the new claims “baseless and sensationalised”. He insisted: “I will not go quietly. I will not be cancelled for convenience.”

It comes just days after the TV presenter was reportedly rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack. The 60-year-old was treated at a hospital in Ashford, Kent, after two days of agonising chest pain. A friend told The Sun: "The stress of this betrayal brought on my suspected heart attack. It’s been hell." It is reported that two days after leaving hospital, Wallace was told that his contract would be terminated.

MasterChef production company Banijay is expected to release the ­findings of a six-month review into his behaviour tomorrow or on Friday. The review, by law firm Lewis Silkin, was ordered after allegations of i­nappropriate sexual behaviour on the set of the BBC cooking show were made against Wallace last year. His lawyers said then: “It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.”

A Banijay insider said many of the BBC’s latest allegations are likely to have already been examined during the review. One source who has read the 200-page report said Wallace’s worst mistake was his December 2024 video about the initial allegations, in which he said: “The complaints [are] from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age.” The source added that alone was a “dismissible offence”.

Yesterday, the presenter posted a five-page statement on social media. Wallace said: “I recognise my humour and language, at times, was inappropriate. For that, I apologise.

“I have now been cleared by the Silkin report of the most serious and sensational accusations. The most damaging claims, including allegations from public figures which have not been upheld, were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.”

The presenter said he had taken the decision to speak out ahead of the publication of the Silkin report because: “I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged.”

Wallace claimed the new BBC News allegations included “legally unsafe accusations” which had been “found not credible by Silkin”.

He said allowing the stories to run ahead of the report was an attempt to derail the process. And in response to claims that the BBC had “fired” him, a spokesman said that this was ­impossible, because it was not his employer. Wallace, whose young son Sid has autism, argued that he should have been better looked after.

He added: “I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer. 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. My neurodiversity, now formally ­diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of MasterChef.

“Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over 20 years. That failure is now being quietly buried.”

He added: “I was tried by media and hung out to dry before the facts were established. The full story of this incredible injustice must be told.”

A source close to Wallace insisted he had been made the fall guy. They added: “This is about protecting a format, one of the most valuable formats that Banijay and the BBC has. And what they should be doing is having a clean start and not just chucking one bloke under the bus. Gregg has employed a lawyer and he’s going for blood. The report talks about him being odd – the guy has got autism and it was never addressed. It’s been a trial by social media and a big pile-on.

“All these things, when they’re looked at by a lawyer, are not true. Bullying Penny Lancaster? Not true. Vanessa Feltz? No evidence. It’s about him having a terrible sense of humour and telling rude jokes.”

The pal said that dad-of-three Wallace was “in a bad way”, warning: “This guy is fragile. When everything has been taken away like this, it’s quite overwhelming.”

One MasterChef insider said that no conversation over Wallace’s future employment had yet taken place. The latest allegations include two women who said Wallace exposed himself to them, a student who says he put his hand up her skirt in 2013 and another woman who claims he groped her the previous year.

It is not clear how many of the 50 allegations have been examined by the review lawyers, who looked only at allegations relating to MasterChef. The BBC said: “We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings published.”

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