‘MasterChef’ Host Gregg Wallace Apologizes for “Women of Certain Age” Video Response to Misconduct Claims

Gregg Wallace, co-host of the wildly popular BBC show MasterChef, has apologized on social media for his response to the misconduct allegations that have been leveled against him.

“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. I wasn’t in a good head space 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,” Wallace said in a video posted on his Instagram page.

Ahead of the weekend, Wallace was asked to step down from his TV presenter role while allegations of historical misconduct were investigated. Production company Banijay U.K. said the 60-year-old was co-operating with the internal investigation after BBC News reported accusations that Wallace made inappropriate sexual comments to co-workers over a 17-year period and which came from 13 different people.

One of those co-workers includes broadcaster Kirsty Wark, a U.K. Celebrity MasterChef contestant in 2011. She said that on two occasions, the presenter made jokes of a “sexualized nature” in front of cast and crew.

After a separate video in which Wallace discounted his accusers as “middle-class women of a certain age,” a spokesperson for the British government called his response “inappropriate and misogynistic” during a background briefing, which prompted Wallace’s apology. In his latest video, a more contrite Wallace said he will be taking a “time out.”

His lawyers have said accusations that he behaves in this nature are “entirely false.”

The TV host is a household name in Britain having appeared alongside fellow presenter John Torode in MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC One and BBC Two. He has written regularly for Good Food, Now and Olive magazines.

Other allegations the BBC detailed about Wallace include talking openly about his sex life, taking his top off in front of a female worker, saying he wanted to “give her a fashion show,” and telling a junior female colleague he wasn’t wearing any underwear.