Full disclosure. I think Gregg Wallace is a crude, misogynistic, dummy from another age – an age where men wanted to be seen out with good-looking women because it boosted their egos, made THEM look good.
Wallace even said once that he only went out with women who made him feel like he was "riding in a Jaguar with the roof down”.
Years ago when I came across him it was clear he had no idea how to treat or talk to women, so he made stupid, unfunny jokes.
He even asked me once if I thought women fancied him because he was famous. I thought it was a stupid question from a stupid man whose vanity and arrogance made him think women were falling at his feet because he was such a fantastically wonderful person.
So yes, I disabused him of that notion and told him his fame was absolutely the reason women were after him because there was clearly nothing else that could have attracted them.
He didn’t get the joke. But everyone else around us did – and laughed. I said what I said because I wanted to make HIM feel uncomfortable in the way his silly jokes made others – especially women – feel uncomfortable.
All this was when he was a relatively minor celebrity, in the days before he was a household name. And I’m guessing the fame and power that goes with his current status has made him even more arrogant and vile.
I must also say hats off to the charming John Torode – who Wallace is furious with for not backing him. He must have lived these past 20 years wanting to punch his co-host’s lights out.
Torode is everything Wallace is not, and to be partnered with this offensive dinosaur must have driven him nuts. Torode earned his place on MasterChef. He’s a brilliant chef and therefore qualified to judge other people’s culinary talents – whereas Wallace, a former greengrocer, is not.
But all that said, I’m starting to feel a bit uncomfortable about the nationwide pile-on and the pressure to have Wallace obliterated from the face of the earth. The media frenzy to see him utterly destroyed is every bit as ugly as what Wallace has been accused of.
And it's why I hate the cancel culture more than I hate Wallace. We’re being encouraged to believe that the very sight of him now is going to trigger women he might have once told a crass joke to.
Oh please! Women are stronger than that. Nonetheless, the BBC has now cancelled the MasterChef Christmas specials. But I’d like to talk a bit about some of his accusers. Not the female staff at Banijay, the production company that makes
MasterChef for the BBC. I totally understand why some of them were frightened of confronting Wallace or making formal complaints about him. Many are young. They also know the power of the show’s stars and they might have felt making complaints could have ended their careers.
But what about women like Ulrika, Kirsty Wark, Melanie Sykes and Kirstie Allsop, who are now all coming out to say what a pig and a boor he was.
And I’m sure he was – but I’m wondering why they didn’t say anything to Wallace about his crude remarks at the time? These are all smart, assertive women. They don’t need Wallace or MasterChef for their careers. And thick blokes like him would hold no fear for them. So why when Wallace made the rape joke to Ulrika didn’t she rip his head off (verbally, obviously).
Why didn’t she tell him she’d been raped (she wrote about it in her autobiography) and that the joke was in extremely bad taste and he needed to shut up?
Why didn’t Kirsty Wark – who’s been savaging politicians way cleverer than Wallace for years – put him in his place when she says he was telling “sexualised jokes.” How hard would it have been for her to say: “Stop that. It’s offensive.” And Wallace would have done because bullies always cower when someone bites back.
Kirsty Allsopp says while they were filming a pilot together Wallace boasted about a sex act he and his partner enjoyed every day.
She explains: “Why say nothing? Because you feel embarrassed, a prude, shocked, waiting for a male colleague to call him out, not wanting to ‘rock the boat’.”
Oh come on, Kirsty. You are one of THE feistiest, most opinionated women in the media. It’s your M.O. Please don’t tell us you were waiting for a bloke to tell Wallace he was behaving badly.You’re perfectly capable of doing it yourself!
As for Melanie Sykes saying Wallace’s “arrogant and unprofessional behaviour” on set led her to quit her screen career. Oh come on…….. I think her TV career ended for other reasons.
None of these women need men to step in and fight their battles. They’re all incredibly tough and assertive. Was there nothing in them that made them want to snap back at Wallace, to take him on in all his ignorance and arrogance? Why didn’t they tell him he was being vulgar and crass.
I’m sorry but women like the above need to step up for themselves and for other women – the ones who don’t have their clout.
No, Wallace shouldn’t have behaved as he did. And yes, he is 100% responsible for what he is. But surely the strong women he’s encountered should also have taken responsibility for their own responses to him. i.e. gave it to him both barrels.
The reason he’s got away with what he has for years is because he was never properly challenged by the people he worked with or his bosses.
Even now you can see he doesn’t understand quite what it is he’s supposed to have done wrong. And maybe if more women like the Warks, the Allsopps and the Jonssons of this world had challenged him at the time he wouldn’t be the caveman he is today.
The young women who came out and pointed the finger at Wallace when it could have cost them their jobs and their careers are the brave ones here. They had something to lose by speaking out and they were probably frightened.
But what’s the point of these other strong women speaking out now? Yes, they’re giving credibility to the stories of these younger women. But how much more powerful would it have been if they had used THEIR power, THEIR fame, THEIR voices at the time to take on Wallace.
He couldn’t have hurt them or their careers if they had. And if he ignored them they could have taken their complaints higher. Because bosses at Banijay and the BBC wouldn’t dare have ignored the voices of these women who are every bit as famous as Wallace but way stronger and smarter.
Had they spoken out when they were subjected to his vulgarity the younger women who’ve had to endure it since might have been spared.
