Penny Lancaster has accused former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace of threatening behaviour and harassment during her time on the BBC cooking show, revealing she was left “shaking” and in tears.
In her autobiography Someone Like Me, the Loose Women star admitted she hadn’t planned to write about her 2021 stint on Celebrity MasterChef, but felt compelled to speak out after being contacted by investigators probing Wallace’s conduct.
“No woman should ever go to work fearing they will be bullied or harassed, or arrive home knowing that they have been,” the 54-year-old writes in an excerpt from her memoir obtained by The Sun.
Lancaster recalled expecting co-judge John Torode to be the tough critic, only to find Wallace, now 60, was the source of her distress.
She alleged he was “crass” towards fellow contestant Melanie Sykes and deliberately tried to rattle her own performance.
According to Lancaster, the incident unfolded when contestants were asked to produce two identical dishes.
Wallace, she claimed, “purposefully stole a flower” from one of her plates and, when she asked for it back, refused.
She writes in the book: “Normally Wallace wandered around the studio with a stuck-on smile, but all I could see now was a thunderous stare. Then he marched over to my station with my tray and slammed it down. 'I'm the judge and I make all the decisions', he said menacingly, before heading back.”
Shaken and near tears, Lancaster says no one, including Torode or the production crew, stepped in to defuse the confrontation.
When she confronted Wallace again, she claims his manner grew “even more threatening”.
She left the studio in tears and says the production team never checked on her, but felt relieved that she no longer had to work alongside Wallace.
“There was a very real context to those tears that was never explained to the viewer,” she recalls of her exit interview from the show. “It really did feel like no one cared.”
Lancaster says she later gave evidence to the BBC and production company Banijay’s internal investigation into Wallace’s behaviour.
She also reveals she was serving on jury duty when the first allegations hit the headlines and had no idea her husband, Sir Rod Stewart, 80, would wade in with a blistering Instagram post calling Wallace a “tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully”.
The Standard has contacted Gregg Wallace’s representative for comment.
Earlier this month it was revealed that Wallace has launched legal proceedings against the BBC, filing a data protection claim in the High Court.
The case marked the latest twist in the fallout from his dismissal earlier this summer, though the exact details of the claim have not yet been disclosed.
Wallace, 60, fronted the hit cooking competition for two decades before being removed following an independent investigation commissioned by production company Banijay and carried out by an external law firm.
The inquiry examined 83 separate allegations about his behaviour, upholding 45 of them.
The report found that Wallace had made inappropriate sexual remarks and culturally insensitive comments, undressed in front of colleagues on several occasions and engaged in one incident of unwelcome physical contact.
Wallace and his legal team have consistently denied the allegations, insisting “it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.” However, he did apologise for what he described as a “difference in perception” around one case of unwanted touching, adding: “I am deeply sorry for any distress caused. It was never intended.”
The BBC said it had not yet been formally notified of Wallace’s claim and therefore could not comment.
Wallace’s former co-presenter John Torode was also implicated in the review, which alleged he had used a racial slur — an accusation Torode said he did not recall.
Both men were subsequently dismissed, though the broadcaster chose to air the most recent series they had already filmed.
