Loose Women’s Kaye Adams is among the latest celebs to hit out at MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace who has been accused of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ and making ‘sexual remarks’ by multiple previous contestants on the BBC culinary show.
The 61-year-old Scots star, who appeared on MasterChef back in 2008, has now weighed in on the situation with her own “tuppence worth” after Wallace slammed “middle-class women of a certain age” for complaining about his behaviour in an Instagram video at the weekend.
Kaye has now replied with her own Instagram message, slamming Gregg as “completely missing the point” in his response to the accusations. She also claimed the underlying issues surrounding the allegations are about “power”.
Kaye captioned the video on December 1 to her 170k followers: “As a woman of a certain age, here’s my tuppence worth: it’s not just about power—it’s about how you use it in any situation, whether it comes from your gender, age, status, or physicality. The key is not to make others feel uncomfortable or worse. Bon Appétit!”
Wallace, 60, has now stepped back from the BBC show amid an ongoing probe.
Kaye’s post has sparked some controversy in the comments section as many raised the argument of ‘double standards’ as they referenced back to older Loose Women episodes.
One follower wrote: “Double standards. If someone were to scrutinise all the LW episodes they’d find plenty of innuendo, touching, flirting with male guests etc from the panelists.
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“Similarly, the comments from the female judges on Strictly have, at times, been visibly uncomfortable for the male contestants to listen to and they’re expected to laugh it off.”
Another echoed: “Maybe you should look back at some old LW episodes. Some presenters, made innuendos towards men, flirted with them, touched them, are you going to say anything about that?” A third questioned: “Why then did those women not use their power, minds and vocal cords AT THE TIME????”
However, others were firmly on Kaye’s side as one replied: “This comments section is depressing. Kaye is completely correct.” Someone else commented: “I found Greggs video really insulting, deliberately calling out middle class woman, doing so. Unfortunately for me, his tone showed me he’s guilty.”
Kaye’s weigh in on the situation came after the MasterChef host hit back at the allegations against him last week as he filmed himself on Instagram to say: “I have been doing Masterchef for 20 years – amateur, celebrity and professional MasterChef and I think in that time I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds and all walks of life.
“And apparently now I am reading in the paper there’s been 13 complaints in that time. In the newspaper I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age just from Celebrity Masterchef.
“This isn’t right. In over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants, on MasterChef have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo, can you imagine?”
Wallace has since apologised for the controversial remarks, taking to social media yesterday (Monday 2) with another video to express his regret over his previous video.
He said: “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 admitted to not being in the right frame of mind when he made the post, citing immense stress and emotional turmoil: “I wasn’t in a good headspace 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.”
Acknowledging the need for a break, especially during the ongoing investigation, he added: “It’s obvious to me I need to take some time out, now, while this investigation is under way I hope you understand and I do hope you will accept this apology.”
His public apology comes after reports that the BBC will still air the current series of MasterChef and the Christmas special episodes are expected to still go ahead.
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