Gregg Wallace comes under fire from ITV’s Lorraine Kelly as she hits out at ‘toxic’ TV industry: ‘Appalling!’
Lorraine Kelly has ripped into TV presenter Gregg Wallace in a scathing rant about “toxic” people in the industry, branding his alleged conduct as behaving “appallingly”.
The 65-year-old presenter, best known for hosting her self-named ITV chat show, didn’t hold back as she delved into the recent controversy, which has seen Wallace, 60, leaving his hosting gig on MasterChef.
Banijay UK, MasterChef’s production company, launched an investigation into Wallace’s conduct following allegations made to the BBC.
The accusations include claims of inappropriate sexual comments, jokes, and talking openly about intimate acts on set.
Some women have accused Wallace of flirting with crew members and asking younger female colleagues for their phone numbers.
At least 13 women have come forward with accusations of inappropriate behaviour. Wallace has vehemently denied the allegations, insisting on Instagram that he had never taken part in any wrongdoing.
His lawyers have also branded the allegations that he engages in inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature as “entirely false”.
Banijay stated that while the complainants hadn’t raised allegations directly with show producers, they felt it “appropriate to conduct an immediate, external review.”
The scandal Wallace is embroiled in was brought up when Kelly reflected on the “imbalance of power” that can arise within the entertainment industry during a new interview.
Kelly shared: “There are toxic people in telly. We’re going through that at the moment. The behaviour of Gregg Wallace and other people that we’ve seen, should it come about as all true, is appalling.
“There’s an imbalance of power there, and it’s abused. They’re just not right, and it should never happen.”
During the passionate speech, she continued to the Mirror: “But how dare the people around about them allow and enable them to behave like that?
“It’s horrible and it’s toxic and nasty. I’ve got no time for people who abuse their power.”
Kelly also made her thoughts on the subject clear on her morning show after Wallace stated the allegations against him came from “middle-class women of a certain age,” a comment which sparked outrage.
“It’s not a class thing at all, don’t play that card, just don’t play that card,” Kelly fumed as she addressed the headline-making remark at the end of last year.
“If you make people feel uncomfortable, it’s not 1972, I do understand that a lot of people might say, ‘It wasn’t that bad really,’ well it was, and it was a lot. It wasn’t just one person,” she continued.
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“You get personality clashes, of course you do, but there’s a lot of people coming out to say, ‘Actually I felt really uncomfortable but I didn’t want to say anything.'”
TV chef Wallace, who later apologised for the remarks, had stepped down from the role he’s best known for after complaints about his conduct were made public.