All the celebrities who have condemned Gregg Wallace, from Sir Rod Stewart to Charlotte Crosby

Celebrities have come out in droves with their own condemning statements after the BBC said it was investigating claims of “historic” misconduct from MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace.

The news broke last week that millionaire Gregg was being investigated over claims made by 13 people across 17 years, and though he has denied any wrongdoing, Gregg has been forced to take a step back from MasterChef while the investigation plays out.

He is said to be fully cooperating with the proceedings, but let’s get you caught up on all the celebrity comments in the meantime and before any more come out.

1. Sir Rod Stewart

Sir Rod Stewart was trending on Friday after he slammed Gregg’s treatment of his wife Penny Lancaster when she appeared on the celebrity edition of MasterChef back in 2021.

“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,” he penned across Twitter and Instagram.

2. Ulrika Jonsson

Taking to her Instagram stories after the initial story broke, Ulrika Jonsson slammed Greg Wallace while alleging that he’d made a rape joke that lawyers then gaslit her into believing never happened.

“Plenty of crew on set who would not dare to speak up for fear of losing their jobs,” she said.

Ulrika later issued another statement after Gregg blamed the situation on “women of a certain age”, something he has since apologised for.

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“When he made reference to women of a certain age I was just seething… I was just absolutely wild,” she told The Telegraph. “My first reaction was just, ‘Keep digging, Gregg. Keep digging’ because this shows the arrogance of a man who has zero introspection or self-awareness.”

She continued: “When we refer to women ‘of a certain age’, they tend to be women my age, over 50, which is ironic because we are some of the hardiest women out there. When I was starting out, we had to put up with all sorts of sexist, misogynistic comments, and we put up with them.

‘‘It’s the height of arrogance for him to say, ‘Oh it’s this small bunch, it’s this small cohort of people who are different’. No, Gregg, actually, it’s not about being different. It’s about being respectable and having some ability to not just read the room, but to read the world.”

3. Charlotte Crosby

Geordie Shore’s Charlotte Crosby appeared on Celebrity MasterChef earlier this year, an experience she earlier described as difficult and confidence-shattering.

Following the news of the investigation, and seeing Sir Rod’s scathing public service announcement, Charlotte commented: “He was extremely unpleasant to me when I was on MasterChef.”

4. Katy Brand

Katy Brand speaks on MasterChef ‘tart’ moment with Gregg Wallace pic.twitter.com/1t94MhoFgd

— The Sun (@TheSun) November 29, 2024

Former Celebrity Masterchef star Katy Brand issued her own statement after a 2013 clip from her time on MasterChef resurfaced and went positively viral. At the time, Gregg said he would “munch the living daylights out of her little tart” when she gave him her meal to try.

“I took it as an innuendo-laden remark at the time, and I still see it that way now,” she said on Instagram. “My reaction on camera was one of shock and disbelief at such a crass and idiotic joke, and so I laughed and said ‘excuse me?’ to which he reacted with a deadpan expression and remark about my laughter.”

Though she was not one of the 13 to have made the complaint, she stated: “I applaud those who have, especially those who work off-camera and who often find they do not have the opportunity or support to react in the moment. I hope they find it now.”

5. Lorraine Kelly

On one of the rare occasions when Lorraine Kelly was the host of her own show, she questioned if anyone was advising Gregg Wallace following his comments about women over a certain age.

She said: “It’s not a class thing at all, don’t play that card, just don’t play that card. 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.

“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’.”

6. Aasmah Mir

In 2017, I took part in Celebrity Masterchef. I put my first dish down in front of the judges and the cameras paused to reset. In front of everyone, Gregg Wallace told me to tell a colleague at the BBC “that she was a sexy bitch.” No-one said anything. And yes, I did complain. pic.twitter.com/YE626mmezB

— Aasmah Mir (@AasmahMir) November 30, 2024

Broadcaster and journalist Aasmah Mir did a stint on Celebrity MasterChef in 2017, a time she does not look back on fondly according to a statement she posted on Twitter. In one particularly horrid moment, she alleges that, as the cameras reset, Gregg “told [her] to tell a colleague at the BBC ‘that she was a sexy b***h’.”

“I left the competition first. But two female contestants including Ulrika Jonsson told me afterwards that he had told another contestant that the way she was handling fish ‘looked like a rapist doing foreplay’,” she wrote. “There was a complaint and he was told to apologise which he did. In an email to a BBC boss, I was told that Wallace’s behaviour was ‘unacceptable’ and ‘couldn’t continue’. Judge for yourself if it has.”

7. Kirsty Wark

Broadcaster Kirsty Wark was among the 13 people involved in the BBC investigation and recalled jokes and comments of a  “sexualised nature” during her time on the show in 2011.

“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,” she said in an interview with the BBC. “I think people were uncomfortable and something that I really didn’t expect to happen.”

8. Aggie MacKenzie

Aggie MacKenzie was also on Good Morning Britain and backed up what Kirsty claimed about Gregg’s inappropriate conduct on the MasterChef set.

“Those jokes weren’t directed at me but they were always smutty and endless. It was as if Gregg was some kind of dinosaur and couldn’t read the room. I can’t listen to his voice now, it triggers something in me,” she said on GMB.

9. Keir Starmer

Even the Prime Minister waded into the drama on Monday as a spokesperson for Downing Street dubbed the allegations “deeply concerning” and warranting a full investigation.

They said: “It is right that a thorough investigation is conducted. Obviously that’s for the BBC and the production company. But I would add the Culture Secretary spoke with the BBC leadership at the end of last week on this matter and wider workplace culture issues to seek assurances there are robust processes in place to deal with complaints. Clearly the comments that we’ve seen from the individual over the weekend were completely inappropriate, misogynistic.

“More broadly as you know the BBC is conducting an independent review into workplace culture, which must deliver clear and timely recommendations. It’s essential for staff and the wider public to have confidence that the BBC takes this issue seriously.”

Featured Image credit: BBC & Instagram/Ulrika Jonsson