MasterChef host John Torode has been dragged into the scandal surrounding his former co-star Gregg Wallace as he has been accused of using a racist remark and allegedly told to resign
The BBC have been alleged to have asked MasterChef host John Torode to resign from the cooking show after he was accused of using a racist remark – and blame mental health. It comes after the long-standing presenter admitted an allegation against him had been upheld.
John spoke out after his co-star Gregg Wallace was found to have been involved in 45 substantiated claims of misconduct.
A report by law firm Lewis Silkin for production company Banijay revealed that 45 out of 83 accusations against Wallace were corroborated. The findings also included two separate claims implicating others, with one involving racist remarks.
Hours after the report went public, Torode took to social media to publicly admit he is subject to an allegation of racist language.
The BBC said it welcomed the report and confirmed Wallace was told “we have no plans to work with him in future”.
Following Torode’s admission, a source alleged that the BBC told him to claim he had mental health issues and resign from MasterChef – following Gregg out the door.
It has been claimed the BBC called John on Thursday night, followed by an email on Friday with him needing to make a decision by Monday.
“It was suggested he quit due to the stress and scrutiny of the furore around the show,” a source told the Sun. “Obviously he was absolutely shocked and appalled and told them quite firmly he didn’t have any mental health issues.”
They added: “John absolutely loves MasterChef, and doesn’t want to lose his job because of an investigation into his co-star.”
In the report, he was cited but not named. Torode, who has hosted the BBC show since 2005, claimed he had “no recollection of the incident” and expressed being “shocked and saddened”.
His Instagram statement read: “Following publication of the Executive Summary of the investigation into Gregg Wallace while working on MasterChef, I am aware of speculation that I am one of the two other individuals against whom an allegation has been upheld.
“For the sake of transparency, I confirm that I am the individual who is alleged to have used racial language on one occasion. The allegation is that I did so sometime in 2018 or 2019, in a social situation, and that the person I was speaking with did not believe that it was intended in a malicious way and that I apologised immediately afterwards.
“I have absolutely no recollection of any of this, and I do not believe that it happened. However, I want to be clear that I’ve always had the view that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. I’m shocked and saddened by the allegation as I would never wish to cause anyone any offence.”
Yesterday the BBC said it welcomed the findings from Lewis Silkin and confirmed that Wallace had been informed “we have no plans to work with him in future”.
A statement said: “The investigation details a substantial number of allegations of inappropriate conduct spanning 19 years. This behaviour falls below the values of the BBC and the expectations we have for anyone who works with or for us.
“Although the full extent of these issues were not known at the relevant time, opportunities were missed to address this behaviour – both by the production companies running MasterChef and the BBC. We accept more could and should have been done sooner.”
The BBC flagged that two allegations relating to “other individuals” working on MasterChef now needed to be urgently addressed by the production company.
“Lewis Silkin’s findings include two further allegations which were upheld, relating to other individuals. The BBC takes these findings very seriously and we have asked Banijay UK to take action to address these issues, which is underway. This will be completed as a priority.”
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Source: Mirror
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