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Gregg Wallace’s apology in FULL as ex BBC Masterchef host finally admits he was wrong

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Gregg Wallace yesterday broke his silence after being his dismissal from Masterchef — but the shamed presenter insisted innuendos on the show were “no worse than Bake Off”

Fired Masterchef host Gregg Wallace has admitted he said the slur that led to his dismissal was “stupid, defensive, and arrogant”.

Breaking his silence following the sacking, Wallace, 61, apologised for his behaviour — but stressed innuendos on Masterchef were “no worse than Bake Off,” referencing the popular Channel 4 show The Great British Bake Off.

Wallace maintained it was never his “intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable” and now understands why participants may have hesitated to challenge his conduct at the time, worried it might jeopardise their prospects of winning his programme. He lost his job on the BBC programme in July last year amid claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour and inappropriate sexual comments, allegations he strongly denies.

But his apology yesterday was lengthy and widely read and shared on Instagram. In it, the entrepreneur, raised in Peckham, southeast London, said he had been “stupid, defensive and arrogant”.

READ MORE: John Torode’s message for his MasterChef replacement Grace Dent as he slams ‘cult’READ MORE: Gregg Wallace says he is victim of ‘terrible injustice’ as he takes fight to the BBC

The apology in full reads: “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.

“I’ve been doing a lot more of that over the past year, and as I work to move on with my life following last year’s investigation and my subsequent dismissal, I find it increasingly important to share my truth.”

The father of three went on: “That feeling of being backed into a corner was a reaction to a situation I still cannot fully comprehend. For twenty years, I presented as that loud, cheeky greengrocer off the telly.

“It was a persona I adopted for the boisterous workplace environment, full of bawdy humour. I’ve always loved a bit of banter and a bit of a laugh, so I felt like I was fitting in on set, matching the culture that was engineered from the top down.

“First thing in the morning, the directors would whip us up with energy and excitement, a sentiment it was my job to reflect. They’d hype you up because that’s what they wanted for the show. You’re unscripted, you’re bouncing off the walls, and you’re all trying to make each other laugh.

Discussing the humour on the MasterChef set, Wallace insisting the “colourful” language and jokes were akin to those on Bake Off. He added: “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.

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“My job was to put contestants at ease and to get the lines production needed for the edit. I did it the only way I knew how: trying to make people feel like part of the group.

“I thought it was working. I genuinely thought everyone thought it was hilarious. 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.

Telltale sign Amanda Holden already knew Alan Carr did well on Celebrity Traitors

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Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden stars in property renovation show Amanda And Alan’s Greek Job with comedian Alan Carr, who won The Celebrity Traitors in November last year

Shrewd Amanda Holden knew Alan Carr did well on The Celebrity Traitors before he told her — because she didn’t hear from him for two weeks.

The Britain’s Got Talent judge sussed her close friend’s success when Alan, 49, did not call her during the production of the show. The comedian usually rings Amanda every day so the actress quickly became suspicious during the spring, when filming took place at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands.

Alan went on to win The Celebrity Traitors but, though he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone, Amanda, 54, had a hunch he at least “did well” on the programme. Speaking yesterday, she said: “I knew he must have done well because I didn’t speak to him for two weeks, normally we speak every day.

“He’s been around for so long, but everyone’s suddenly like, ‘Oh, I love Alan Carr’, and I think, ‘How is he a new thing to you? He’s always been this brilliant’.”

READ MORE: Alan Carr fans are all saying the same thing after his and Amanda Holden’s Greek JobREAD MORE: Simon Cowell’s new TV show branded ‘big two fingers up to ITV’ over The X Factor

Mother-of-three Amanda added: “My daughter Holly, who’s always loved him, said to me, ‘Everyone’s asking me about Alan’, and I say to them, ‘You’ve met Alan, he was in the back garden at our party, and you weren’t bothered about him then’.

“Alan’s literally brought them a cup of tea in bed or been on holiday with them. But now they’re really into him, it’s brought a whole new generation because of all the TikToks and the memes, which is lovely.”

Alan recently said Amanda, who was in popular drama Wild at Heart, would be “great” on The Celebrity Traitors. Amanda hinted she would want to be a traitor if she was going to do the programme, which airs on the BBC.

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Alan himself was a traitor and fooled faithfuls comedian Nick Mohammed and TV historian David Olusoga in the show’s final moments. The TV presenter took home the £87,500 prize pot for cancer charity Neuroblastoma UK, in the first series of the British celebrity version of the show, which broadcast late last year.

Speaking to the Radio Times, Amanda reflected on the series and Alan’s triumph. The star, who was been a judge on Britain’s Got Talent since it began in 2007, continued: “I do love the cloak, I think I’d look like the woman from the Scottish Widows advert if I could customise it with a red lip.

Texans stifle Rodgers to knock Steelers out of play-offs

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The Houston Texans produced a defensive masterclass to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-6 and book the final spot in the Divisional Round of the NFL play-offs.

The final Wildcard Weekend game on Monday was expected to be a low-scoring affair and so it proved for three quarters, with Houston leading 7-6.

Then the Texans charged clear with three touchdowns in the final quarter – two of them scored by their league-leading defence.

That made for a dismal end for Pittsburgh quarterback Aaron Rodgers in what could be the last game in the 42-year-old’s illustrious career.

After joining the Steelers on a one-year deal, the NFL’s four-time Most Valuable Player has said this could be his final season.

Why this could be the end for Rodgers

Houston’s pass rush has wreaked havoc this season, helping the Texans to a 12-5 record and a third straight play-off appearance.

And they gave Rodgers a torrid time on his 23rd play-off appearance and first in four years.

The one-time Super Bowl winner failed to get the Steelers offence going, although their defence also made life difficult for Houston quarterback CJ Stroud.

They forced the game’s first three turnovers – two from Stroud fumbles, plus an interception – but the best Pittsburgh could muster on the following possessions was a solitary field goal.

That made the half-time score 7-6, with Christian Kirk having scored a touchdown for Houston, before their defensive pressure paid off in the final quarter.

Rodgers fumbled after being sacked by Will Anderson and Sheldon Rankins recovered the loose ball to score a 33-yard touchdown.

What is the Divisional Round schedule?

Kick-off times GMT; Conference seed in brackets

Saturday, 17 January

Buffalo Bills (6) @ Denver Broncos (1) 21:30

San Francisco 49ers (6) @ Seattle Seahawks (1) 01:00 (Sun)

Sunday, 18 January

Houston Texans (5) @ New England Patriots (2) 20:00

Los Angeles Rams (5) @ Chicago Bears (2) 23:30

NFL play-offs: 2025 season

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US slams Russia’s ‘dangerous escalation’ in Ukraine amid new deadly strikes

The United States has accused Russia of a “dangerous and inexplicable escalation” of its nearly four-year war in Ukraine, at a time when US President Donald Trump is trying to advance negotiations towards peace.

The US issued its latest warning on Monday, during an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

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“Russia’s action risks expanding and intensifying the war,” Tammy Bruce, the US’s deputy ambassador to the UN, told the council.

The US expressed particular alarm about Russia’s use of a nuclear-capable Oreshnik ballistic missile last week, which resulted in a “staggering number of casualties” in Ukraine.

“At a moment of tremendous potential, due only to President Trump’s unparalleled commitment to peace around the world, both sides should be seeking ways to de-escalate,” Bruce said.

Still, hours later on Tuesday morning, Russia launched a new round of strikes on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv, killing at least four people and wounding at least six others.

Missile strikes were also reported in the capital, Kyiv, but their impact could not be immediately assessed.

Ukraine called for the Security Council meeting after Russia bombarded the country last Thursday with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, including the Oreshnik missile.

That attack was only the second time Russia had launched the powerful Oreshnik missile in a combat scenario, and its use was widely interpreted as a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies.

At Monday’s meeting, Bruce reminded Russia that, nearly a year ago, it voted in favour of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

“In the spirit of that resolution, Russia, Ukraine and Europe must pursue peace seriously and bring this nightmare to an end.”

On Monday, Moscow acknowledged the Oreshnik attack, which it said targeted an aviation repair factory in the Lviv region in western Ukraine. It said the missile was fired in response to Ukraine’s attempt to strike one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residences, a claim that Kyiv has denied and the US has dismissed as inaccurate.

Last week’s large-scale Russian attack came days after Ukraine and its Western allies reported progress towards an agreement to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a US-led peace deal is struck.

The attack also coincided with a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington.

The Kremlin recently condemned the US seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic, calling the military action a violation of international law. Trump, meanwhile, has signalled that he is on board with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Russia.

Moscow has given no public signal it is willing to budge from its maximalist demands on Ukraine, including that the global community recognise its annexation of Ukrainian territory.

At Monday’s Security Council meeting, Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, instead blamed the diplomatic impasse on Ukraine.

Nebenzia said that, until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “comes to his senses and agrees to realistic conditions for negotiations, we will continue solving the problem by military means”.

“He was warned long ago, with each passing day, each day which he squanders, the conditions for negotiations will only get worse for him,” Nebenzia added.

Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Andrii Melnyk, countered that Russia is more vulnerable now than at any time since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022, with its economy slowing and oil revenue down.

“Russia wants to sell to this council and the whole UN family the impression that it is invincible, but this is another illusion,” he told the council.

“The carefully staged image of strength is nothing but smoke and mirrors, completely detached from reality.”

Early on Tuesday, Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov confirmed the deaths of at least four people and the wounding of six others following the latest Russian strike.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov also said a Russian long-range drone struck a medical facility for children, causing a fire.

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defences were in operation after Russia launched missiles targeting the city.

Australian writers’ festival boss resigns after Palestinian author axed

The director of a top writers’ festival in Australia has stepped down amid controversy over the cancellation of a scheduled appearance by a prominent Australian Palestinian activist and author.

Louise Adler, the director of Adelaide Writers’ Week, said in an op-ed published on Tuesday that Randa Abdel-Fattah had been disinvited by the festival’s board despite her “strongest opposition”.

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Writing in The Guardian, Adler called Abdel-Fattah’s removal from the festival lineup a blow to free expression and a “harbinger of a less free nation”.

“Now religious leaders are to be policed, universities monitored, the public broadcaster scrutinised and the arts starved,” Adler wrote.

“Are you or have you ever been a critic of Israel? Joe McCarthy would be cheering on the inheritors of his tactics,” she added, citing a figure in Cold War history commonly associated with censorship.

Adler’s resignation is the latest blow to the beleaguered event, which has experienced a wave of speaker withdrawals and board resignations in protest of Abdel-Fattah’s cancellation.

The festival’s board announced last week that it had decided to disinvite Abdel-Fattah, a well-known Palestinian advocate and vocal critic of Israel, after determining that her appearance would not be “culturally sensitive” in the wake of a mass shooting at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach.

Fifteen people were killed in the December 14 attack, which targeted a beachside Hanukkah celebration. Authorities have said the two gunmen were inspired by ISIL (ISIS).

Abdel-Fattah has called her removal “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism” and a “despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre”.

On Monday, New Zealand’s former prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced that she would not go ahead with her scheduled appearance at the festival, adding her name to a boycott that has swelled to some 180 writers, including former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and award-winning novelist Zadie Smith.

But Peter Malinauskas, the premier of the state of South Australia, as well as several federal politicians and a number of Jewish groups have backed the revocation of Abdel-Fattah’s invitation.

Abdel-Fattah’s critics have pointed to statements critical of Israel to argue that her views are beyond the pale.

She has, for instance, said that her “goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony”, and that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural safety”.

In her op-ed on Tuesday, Adler said pro-Israel lobbyists are using “increasingly extreme and repressive” tactics, resulting in a chilling effect on speech in Australia.

“The new mantra ‘Bondi changed everything’ has offered this lobby, its stenographers in the media and a spineless political class yet another coercive weapon,” she wrote.

“Hence, in 2026, the board, in an atmosphere of intense political pressure, has issued an edict that an author is to be cancelled.”

Separately on Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the country would hold a national day of mourning on January 22 to honour the victims of the Bondi Beach attack.

Senator Mark Kelly sues US Defense Department for ‘punitive retribution’

United States Senator Mark Kelly has sued the Department of Defense and its secretary, Pete Hegseth, over allegations they trampled his rights to free speech by embarking on a campaign of “punitive retribution”.

The complaint was filed on Monday in the US district court in Washington, DC. It also names the Department of the Navy and its secretary, John Phelan, as defendants.

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“I filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of Defense because there are few things as important as standing up for the rights of the very Americans who fought to defend our freedoms,” Kelly, a veteran, wrote in a statement on social media.

Kelly’s lawsuit is the latest escalation in a feud that first erupted in November, when a group of six Democratic lawmakers – all veterans of the US armed services or its intelligence community – published a video online reminding military members of their responsibility to “refuse illegal orders”.

Democrats framed the video as a simple reiteration of government policy: Courts have repeatedly ruled that service members do indeed have a duty to reject orders they know to violate US law or the Constitution.

But Republican President Donald Trump and his allies have denounced the video as “seditious behaviour” and called for the lawmakers to face punishment.

A focus on Kelly

Kelly, in particular, has faced a series of actions that critics describe as an unconstitutional attack on his First Amendment right to free speech.

A senator from the pivotal swing state of Arizona, Kelly is one of the highest-profile lawmakers featured in November’s video.

He is also considered a rising star in the Democratic Party and is widely speculated to be a candidate for president or vice president in the 2028 elections.

But before his career in politics, Kelly was a pilot in the US Navy who flew missions during the Gulf War. He retired at the rank of captain. Kelly was also selected to be an astronaut, along with his twin Scott Kelly, and they served as part of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

His entry into politics came after his wife, former Representative Gabby Giffords, was shot in the head during a 2011 assassination attempt. On Monday, Kelly described the Senate as “a place I never expected to find myself in”.

“My wife Gabby was always the elected official in our family,” he told his Senate colleagues. “If she had never been shot in the head, she would be here in this chamber and not me. But I love this country, and I felt that I had an obligation to continue my public service in a way that I never expected.”

Kelly’s participation in the November video has placed him prominently within the Trump administration’s crosshairs, and officials close to the president have taken actions to condemn his statements.

Shortly after the video came out, for instance, the Defense Department announced it had opened an investigation into Kelly. It warned that the senator could face a court-martial depending on the results of the probe.

The pressure on Kelly continued this month, when Hegseth revealed on social media that he had submitted a formal letter of censure against the senator.

That letter accused Kelly of “conduct unbecoming of an office” and alleged he had “undermined the chain of command” through his video.

Hegseth explained that the letter sought to demote Kelly from the rank he reached at his retirement, as well as reduce his retirement pay.

“Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth wrote on the platform X.

“As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice.”

Attacking political speech

Kelly responded to that claim by alleging that Hegseth had embarked on a campaign of politically motivated retribution, designed to silence any future criticism from US military veterans.

“Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator,” Kelly wrote on social media on Monday.

“His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.”

Kelly also took to the floor of the Senate on Monday to defend his decision to sue officials from the Trump administration.

Every service member knows that military rank is earned. It’s not given. It’s earned through the risks you take,” Kelly told his fellow senators.

“After my 25 years of service, I earned my rank as a captain in the United States Navy. Now, Pete Hegseth wants even our longest-serving military veterans to live with the constant threat that they could be deprived of their rank and retirement pay years or even decades after they leave the military, just because he or another secretary of defence or a president doesn’t like what they’ve said.”

His lawsuit calls for the federal court system to halt the proceedings against him and declare Hegseth’s letter of censure unlawful.

The court filing makes a twofold argument: that the efforts to discipline Kelly not only violate his free speech rights but also constitute an attack on legislative independence, since they allegedly seek to intimidate a member of Congress.

“It appears that never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions on a Member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech,” the lawsuit asserts.

The complaint also accuses the Trump administration of violating Kelly’s right to due process, given the high-profile calls from within the government to punish the senator.

It pointed to social media posts Trump made, including one that signalled he felt Kelly’s behaviour amounted to “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOUR, punishable by DEATH”.

The lawsuit also argues that Hegseth’s letter of censure appeared to draw conclusions about Kelly’s alleged wrongdoing, only to then request that the Navy review his military rank and retirement benefits.

Such a review, the lawsuit contends, can therefore not be considered a fair assessment of the facts.