Gregg Wallace raises ‘Spotted Dick’ in big MasterChef apology as he admits he was “stupid”

EXCLUSIVE: The former Masterchef presenter has apologised for the ‘upset’ his behaviour caused after being axed from the BBC show. He admitted many of the gags were ‘sexual’ about ‘spotted dick, nuts, the rim of a glass, little tarts’ but said food was ‘full of innuendo’.

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Gregg Wallace defended ‘Spotted Dick’ jokes as he said ‘sorry’ for his MasterChef behaviour – and admitted he had been ‘stupid, defensive and arrogant’ following his sacking.

He confessed many of the show’s gags were ‘sexual’ about ‘spotted dick, nuts, the rim of a glass, little tarts’ but said food was ‘full of innuendo’.

Wallace said it was never his ‘intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable’ and he now saw why contestants may have been reluctant to call out his behaviour at the time fearing it could scupper their chances of winning.

The shamed telly star admitted he had been ‘completely wrong’ to brand accusers who complained about his inappropriate behaviour ‘middle-class women of a certain age’.

Wallace said he had ‘lashed out’ because he felt ‘backed into a corner’ and now realised it was ‘hurtful and wrong’.

But he admitted he was still bemused by his downfall and questioned ‘whether the standards by which I was judged were knowable in advance’.

He said he had spent 20 years playing the ‘loud, cheeky greengrocer off the telly’ and honed his behaviour to match a ‘culture that was engineered from the top down’.

Wallace claimed the show’s directors would ‘whip us up with energy and excitement’, his job was to ‘put contestants at ease’ and he did it the ‘only way’ he knew how.

“I genuinely thought everyone thought it was hilarious,” he said.

“I saw the people around me making these jokes and assumed they were a normal, encouraged part of workplace behaviour, and that when I did it it would be perceived the same way.

“Nobody ever told me otherwise. Nobody, not a director, producer, or colleague, ever said, ‘Oi, Gregg, pack it in’. In fact, it was the opposite.

“The energy was encouraged.”

Wallace was sacked by the BBC last July after a seven-month probe upheld 45 allegations made against him including inappropriate sexual language and humour, ‘being in a state of undress’ and one incident of unwelcome physical contact.

He has since tried to forge a new career as a personal trainer and broadcasts healthy recipes on TikTok.

In a lengthy apology posted on media platform Substack Wallace appeared to downplay what he said were the ‘most serious’ allegations against him.

He wrote: “18 years ago in a closed studio with only myself and three friends present I came out of my dressing room wearing a shirt and a sock over my bits. Everybody fell about laughing.

“The investigation confirmed that everyone present was amused. Nobody was offended.

“Furthermore the investigation confirmed that none of these instances were sexually motivated.

“There was also one incident of physical contact. Seventeen years ago, at a party, I had my arm around a woman while we were talking and had my hand on her bum for at least five minutes.

“I believed it was consensual. I confirmed this myself during the investigation and the investigation noted that I believed it to be consensual.”

He was caught in a ‘state of undress’ when someone entered his dressing room as he was getting changed, he had taken off his shirt to have a microphone fitted and lifted his t-shirt to ‘show off my six-pack’.

Wallace admitted the banter on the show was ‘colourful’ and ‘sexual’ with jokes about ‘spotted dick’ puddings.

But he moaned he was a victim of changing attitudes.

Gregg, 61, wrote: “Let’s start with the one thing I can say, without any doubt, that I got completely wrong.

“When the media first reported the allegations made against me I went on social media and dismissed the people making complaints as ‘middle-class women of a certain age’.

“It was a stupid, defensive, and arrogant thing to say. I felt like I was being backed into a corner, and I lashed out. There’s no excuse for it. It was hurtful and wrong. It’s not what I truly believe, and I’m sorry for what I said.

“In that moment, I failed to listen, reflect, and respect. I’ve learned from that post that when you’re under fire, the first thing you should do is listen, not talk.

“That feeling of being backed into a corner was a reaction to a situation I still cannot fully comprehend.”

Though he said the humour on set had been ‘bawdy’ he said it was no different to other shows including The Great British Bake Off which is still running.

He said: “We’d make jokes you’d see on any episode of Bake Off, suggestive comments like the ones that regularly show up on The 1% Club.

“I would bring real high energy into that studio.

“And yes, many of the jokes were sexual. I relied on innuendo quite heavily. Food is full of innuendo. Spotted dick, nuts, the rim of a glass, little tarts…we leaned into it. All of us.

“I’d see cameramen making phallic shapes out of leftover ingredients on the bench. I’d join in conversations about sex and relationships because that’s what everyone in the studio was talking about.

“I wasn’t a lone wolf making crude comments in a silent office. I was part of an ensemble that was noisy, energetic, and yes, sometimes crude.

“That was the job. That was the culture. I behaved the way I thought was expected of me. My intent was always to participate appropriately and I believed I was doing so.”

Wallace said ‘the rules changed’ in 2018 when a complaint was made on a different show and he got a formal warning for inappropriate and unprofessional language which ‘surprised’ him.

“It felt like a switch had flipped. Suddenly, the very thing I’d been rewarded for across five TV shows was a problem,” he said.

“It came as a complete shock, and I didn’t understand it.

“If the jokes were a problem, why was everyone still laughing? If the culture was toxic, why was I the only one being singled out?

“That same behaviour I was being called out for appeared to be tolerated and encouraged in others, and I found myself wondering what was allowed and what was a violation, because the distinction was never fully articulated.”

Wallace said work ‘became a terrifying place’ and he ‘stopped socialising with anyone’.

“I’d go to the production office and ask if I’d said anything wrong that day,” he said.

“I’d phone bosses late at night asking if I was going to get in trouble.

“I was an unscripted presenter paid to be energetic and funny who was now terrified of opening his mouth.

“Now I want to be very clear. I am sorry for the upset I caused.

“It was never, ever my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable.

“I can see now that it would be hard for someone to complain about a crude joke if everyone around them was laughing along, including management.

“I also never considered that contestants might not have spoken up for fear it would affect their chances in the competition. Those were failings on my part, and I take accountability for them.

“I accept responsibility for the impact of my actions.

“What I question is whether the standards by which I was judged were knowable in advance.”

Wallace’s fellow MasterChef host John Torode, 60, was axed after the BBC upheld a complaint he used an ‘extremely offensive racist term’ during production – though he said he had ‘no recollection’ of it.