Ben Shephard apologises as Jackie Kearney swears on This Morning
Ben Shephard was forced to step in and explain one guest's swearing on Tuesday's episode of This Morning.
During the latest instalment, hosts Ben, 49, and Cat Deeley spoke to former MasterChef contestant, Jackie Kearney, who finished fourth on the BBC One cooking show in 2011 and later returned as a guest judge six times.
It comes as Gregg Wallace, who hosts the hit BBC cooking series, stepped down from his role last week while the complaints are investigated. Wallace has been accused of making "inappropriate sexual jokes" amongst other behavioural complaints, as the presenter's lawyer stands firm: "It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature".
On Monday, Wallace had expressed regret for his remarks suggesting complaints about his conduct came from "a handful of middle-class women of a certain age", reports the Mirror.
Appearing on Tuesday's This Morning, Jackie claimed that Wallace made 'lewd' comments while filming and she claimed she was left in tears over one of his remarks.
The chef and author said: "I was a guest judge from 2012 to 2017 so I returned six times. So I've had quite a lot of exposure to Gregg's lewd comments."
Recalling one experience, Jackie said it was when she went back to MasterChef for the last time in 2017 that Gregg said one of the 'most crude' and 'upsetting' things. Jackie explained she had just published her second book and was 'really proud' of it.
Jackie brought some books to the studio, where fellow presenter John Torode was a 'complete gentleman', but she was left stunned by Wallace's response.
The cooking star said: "I went to give one to Gregg, I was in the middle of the studio and there were production crew everywhere. I felt nervous because I find it a lot to go up to somebody and go: 'Here, I did this, it's great'.
"I said: 'Oh hi Gregg, I've got a present for you' and he said, I don't know if I can say this on air actually, can I? And he said: 'Oh, is it a present for my c**k?'
"I was so shocked, I just stopped in the middle of the studio and thought: 'Oh my gosh!' I felt like everybody was looking at me, I was so humiliated, you know when you get that burning and you want to cry but you don't want to cry because that adds to your humiliation so you just try to push it down."
Host Ben then stepped in to issue a response over Jackie's swearing, where he said: "Just in case anybody was offended by that story, obviously putting it into context, it was the graphic nature of what Gregg said to you at that point you were trying to illustrate which I'm sure people will understand" to which Jackie replied: "Sorry about that!"
Gregg Wallace's representatives have been contacted for comment.
This Morning continues on weekdays at 10am on both ITV and ITV X.
