John Torode's wife Lisa Faulkner says Gregg Wallace made 'rude jokes' on MasterChef

John Torode's wife Lisa Faulkner - who won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010 - said Gregg Wallace made 'rude joke after rude joke' on the show

Lisa Faulkner said MasterChef star Gregg Wallace made 'rude joke after rude joke' when she was on the show.

The Holby City star is married to fellow MasterChef judge John Torode. Her comments come amid Gregg facing accusations that he made sexual comments around a female member of BBC staff in 2018. The presenter has denied the claims and said the comments were investigated then and found "not to be sexual".

He has also been accused of making inappropriate sexual comments across a range of shows over a 17-year period. BBC News said it had been told of other allegations, including the presenter “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 was not wearing any boxer shorts under his jeans”.

Gregg, 60, is “committed to fully cooperating throughout the process”, a statement from the show’s production company Banijay UK to the PA news agency said. Earlier today, it was announced that Gregg would be stepping away from his role on the long-running cooking competition.

Meanwhile, Lisa recently discussed the jokes he made. The 52-year-old won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010 and stayed close friends with John before marrying him in 2019. Last week, she promoted their new cookbook, John and Lisa's Kitchen, at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

According to the Daily Mail, she said to the audience: "Gregg was telling – I’m probably not allowed to say this…Gregg just told rude joke after rude joke to the crew. You’re just sitting there and if you’re on the front bench just chopping away thinking, ‘I’ve got ten minutes left’, and he’s saying, ‘So this girl walked into a bar…’

“And I’m going, ‘Please, I don’t want to hear this joke’.” John added: "It’s changed quite a lot really…" Today it was revealed that Gregg will step from presenting MasterChef while complaints made to the BBC from individuals about historical allegations of misconduct are investigated. It has not been confirmed if the probe announced today is related to the 2018 incident that Gregg spoke out of.

Gregg has been co-presenter of MasterChef with John Torode since 2005. He has also taken part in the show's spin-off programmes including Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals. His other TV credits include Eat Well for Less?, Inside the Factory and Time Commanders

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