Melanie Sykes has joined the chorus of women publicly speaking out about their alleged experience with Gregg Wallace, who stepped down from his role on BBC’s MasterChef last week due to allegations of misconduct. Sexual harassment, inappropriate touching and unprofessional behaviour are all being investigated by Banijay, the company that produce MasterChef. Wallace has strongly denied the allegations against him and denies any wrongdoing
Sykes says she made an informal complaint about Wallace and quit working in TV in 2021 because of her experience of working with him on Celebrity MasterChef. In fact, she opened up about all of this in her biography Illuminated in 2023, when she wrote about how sexism and toxicity in showbusiness forced her out of the industry.
‘The MasterChef experience continued to be an eye-opener, and some unprofessional behaviour on set was jaw-dropping,’ Sykes wrote. In a new YouTube video, she pointed to the irony of this information being out there all along, saying ‘This apparent bombshell about Gregg Wallace, I had this conversation about my experience on MasterChef [..] in my book… nothing was done about it.’
Sykes also expanded on her experience with Wallace, saying, ‘Every time Gregg came over to the desk, I didn’t really like him being around…. The production company facilitate unprofessionalism. Your “talent” is misbehaving and not really right and just a bit of a prick… I complained afterward and said I didn’t want to make a formal complaint because I’d spend the whole time in litigation after that.’
She went on to say that it’s the entire industry that needs to be reformed. Wallace has so far faced 13 formal complaints about his behaviour, with other women in TV sharing their experiences online. Vanessa Feltz claimed that Wallace described a sex act he had performed on first meeting a friend of hers while in a lift with a young woman.
‘The three of them were going up in the lift together and completely unprompted Gregg Wallace described a sex act that he had performed on his then wife that morning,’ she said. ‘So, my friend had not met Greg Wallace before, hadn’t asked him about his sex life. Was simply taking him to participate in a BBC programme, and the young lady in the lift was just an innocent passenger. So, this is something that a very close friend and associate of mine told me about at the time. What did anyone do about it? Of course, absolutely nothing.’
In response to the allegations, Wallace went on Instagram to defend himself, saying that the accusations came from ‘a handful of middle-class women of a certain age.’ His comments spurred more backlash, and he has now apologised.
‘I want to apologise for any offence that I caused with my post yesterday, and any upset I may have caused to a lot of people,’ he said. ‘I wasn't in a good head space when I posted it. I've been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone, under siege, yesterday, when I posted it. It's obvious to me I need to take some time out while this investigation is under way. I hope you understand, and I do hope that you will accept this apology.’