MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace has said accusations about him making sexual comments towards staff and guests have come from "middle-class women of a certain age".
The 60-year-old responded to the allegations against him in a video posted on Instagram.
"I've been doing MasterChef for 20 years, amateur, celebrity and professional MasterChef, and I think, in that time, I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life," he said.
"Apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time."
He continued: "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.
"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?"
In the latest allegations, Wallace was accused of making lewd comments and asking for the personal phone numbers of female production staff in a letter a producer and director claimed to have sent to the BBC in 2022.
The letter, posted to Instagram by Dawn Elrick on her Shit Men In TV Have Said To Me account, collected a number of anonymous reports from people who alleged they "have experienced sexism and sexual harassment within the TV industry".
It comes after it was announced that Wallace is to step away from the BBC cooking show while historical misconduct complaints are externally reviewed by MasterChef producer Banijay UK.
He also faces allegations of inappropriate sexual comments from 13 people across a range of shows over a 17-year period, as reported by BBC News, which said it sent a letter to the TV star’s representatives earlier this week.
Wallace’s lawyers say "it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature".
Elrick said the BBC suggested each individual would have to make their own, direct complaint to the corporation. She claimed she had received no further contact with regards to the report.
A BBC spokesman said: "If issues are raised with us, we have robust processes in place to deal with them swiftly and appropriately. We will always listen if people want to make us aware of something directly.
"It would be inappropriate for us to comment on anything that could form part of Banijay’s ongoing investigation or otherwise influence it."
Source: Press Association
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