Sir Rod Stewart issued a furious rant at Gregg Wallace on Thursday, calling him a ‘tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’ for ‘humiliating’ his wife Penny Lancaster when she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef, after the star stepped down from the BBC show.
BBC presenter Gregg, 60, stepped away from MasterChef after 13 people including Newsnight host Kirsty Wark accused him of ‘wrong’ and inappropriate ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming, it was revealed today.
Fans of the show will remember Penny leaving Celebrity MasterChef in tears in 2021, after Greg refused to eat her food.
Following Gregg’s departure, Rod wrote: ‘So Greg Wallace gets fired from Master Chef.
‘Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you?
‘You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully. Karma got ya. Sir Rod Stewart’
Sir Rod Stewart issued a furious rant at Gregg Wallace on Thursday, calling him a ‘tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’ for ‘humiliating’ his wife Penny Lancaster (pictured) when she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef, after the star stepped down from the BBC show
BBC presenter Gregg, 60, (pictured) stepped away from MasterChef after 13 people including Newsnight host Kirsty Wark accused him of ‘wrong’ and inappropriate ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming, it was revealed today
Following Gregg’s departure, Rod wrote: ‘So Greg Wallace gets fired from Master Chef. Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you? You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully. Karma got ya. Sir Rod Stewart’
MailOnline have contacted the BBC for a comment.
As chaos filled the kitchen during her stint on the show, Gregg told Penny: ‘Mate, we can’t be 10 minutes late,’ calling her delay ‘serious’.
Following Penny’s eviction from the kitchen in 2021, she shared a cryptic post on Instagram hinting at ‘a person’s behaviour’.
She wrote on Instagram: ‘When you finally learn that a person’s behaviour has more to do with their own struggle than it ever did with you, you learn grace’.
Gregg has been accused of taking his top off in front of a female worker saying he wanted to ‘give her a fashion show’ and talking about his sex life to others.
On one occasion he allegedly told a junior female colleague he wasn’t wearing any boxer shorts under his jeans.
The BBC has revealed that 13 people, including Kirsty Wark, have complained about his conduct while working with him over a 17-year period across five shows, from 2005 to 2022.
Kirsty claims that on two occasions Gregg told stories and jokes of a ‘sexualised nature’ in front of contestants and crew while filming Celebrity MasterChef in 2011. She said his gags and comments were ‘really, really in the wrong place’.
Fans of the show will remember Penny leaving Celebrity MasterChef in tears in 2021, after Greg refused to eat her food
As chaos filled the kitchen during her stint on the show, Gregg told Penny: ‘Mate, we can’t be 10 minutes late,’ calling her delay ‘serious’
Gregg has been accused of taking his top off in front of a female worker saying he wanted to ‘give her a fashion show’ and talking about his sex life to others
Following Penny’s eviction from the kitchen in 2021, she shared a cryptic post on Instagram hinting at ‘a person’s behaviour’
‘There were two occasions in particular where he used sexualised language in front of a number of people and it wasn’t as if anyone engaged with this. It was completely one-way traffic. But I think people were uncomfortable and something that I really did not expect to happen’, she said.
Today Scottish broadcaster Aasmah Mir shared a picture of herself during the 2017 Celebrity MasterChef series with the cryptic message: ‘Always keep your receipts’. It is not yet known if she has also complained.
The BBC claims that Gregg walked away from MasterChef today after BBC News sent a letter to his agent on Tuesday, setting out allegations from 13 people and giving him a right of reply.
They say he was warned after a complaint was raised in 2018, but new historical claims emerged over the summer of 2024.
Gregg is ‘committed to fully cooperating throughout the process’, the show’s production company Banijay UK said.
Gregg will be on BBC One as usual on Thursday night because MasterChef: The Professionals, which is already recorded, will transmit as planned and into December. MasterChef’s Christmas specials will also still be broadcast.
The chef is yet to comment today – but at the time of the announcement this afternoon he did take to Instagram to share his recipe for prawn tacos with pineapple salsa.
But in October Gregg vehemently denied that he had made inappropriate sexual comments towards women, declaring that he would never ‘flirt with’ or ‘hit on’ another woman and saying: ‘I didn’t say anything sexual’.
