John Torode, who was sacked from MasterChef yesterday after an historic accusation of racism which he denies and claims he has no memory of, met wife Lisa Faulkner in 2010
Lisa Faulkner admitted she was “petrified” of John Torode when she met on him MasterChef. The Spooks star, 53, appeared on the celebrity version of the show in 2010 when she and John, 59 – who has been sacked from the BBC series following an historic allegation of racism, which he denies – were both still married to other people.
After Lisa, who previously married to Chris Coghill, was crowned the winner of Celebrity MasterChef, she and the Aussie chef, who was previously married to Jessica Thomas, insisted their relationship was purely platonic. However, when they split from their respective partners the following year, they embarked on a romance, before tying the knot in 2019.
READ MORE: John Torode sacked from MasterChef after racism allegation as BBC share damning statement
Despite appearing to have one of the strongest marriages in showbiz now, Lisa didn’t get a good first impression of the father-of-four.
Last year, she told the Mail: “He was a judge on a show I loved and I was petrified of him.
“He was brilliant and gave us all tips so you didn’t want to let him down. All I could think was, ‘That sauce hasn’t worked’.”
Revealing she never thought about “me and him”, Lisa claimed she and John actually met for the first time on This Morning almost 20 years earlier, when she was a guest and John was cooking, but said he didn’t remember.
“He didn’t remember me at all. He used to say: ‘Oh, all right, yeah,’ like he didn’t believe me,” Lisa said.
“And then he did an interview on This Morning where they showed the clip and he came home and said, ‘I did meet you!’ And I went, ‘I know, I did tell you.’
“I remembered it so well. It’s really funny. He said he was nervous because it was his first time on telly. I thought he just seemed really arrogant.”
However, John won Lisa over in very romantic way when he wrote her a love letter. Their simmering friendship eventually blossomed into romance when the newly divorced chef invited the mum-of-one out for dinner in the form of a romantic note.
“Neither of us thought of it as anything else until… I don’t know how things change, but something does,” Lisa admitted at the time. “He asked me on a date. We went out for dinner. Then it was slightly different.”
John later admitted the reason behind the letter was because he was concerned Lisa would turn him down, so wanted to avoid any awkwardness that may have occurred if he asked her face to face. He said: “I’d separated from my wife [Jessica] which was awful, and I was reluctant to approach Lisa face to face as I didn’t fancy the prospect of her saying no, so I wrote her a letter.
“If I’d got no response, it wouldn’t matter. Cowardly? S***, yeah. I’m as cowardly as they get.”
However, the letter turned into a date which eventually blossomed into love. After getting married in a star-studded bash in 2019, John supported Lisa last year when she claimed that axed MasterChef judge Gregg made “rude joke after rude joke” during her stint on the show in 2010.
And now it looks like she’ll be supporting her husband after John took to Instagram saying he found out he too had been sacked from the show – after watching the news.
In bombshell statement, John, who has hosted MasterChef with Gregg for nearly 20 years, confirmed yesterday he was the person alleged to have used racist language after an investigation into his former co-star. However, John said he had no memory of making the comment and denies it ever happened.
Following the furore, he has now been sacked from the long-running show, with the BBC confirming yesterday: “John Torode has identified himself as having an upheld allegation of using racist language against him. This allegation, which involves an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace, was investigated and substantiated by the independent investigation led by the law firm, Lewis Silkin. John Torode denies the allegation.
“He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. He also says that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment.
“The BBC takes this upheld finding extremely seriously. We will not tolerate racist language of any kind and, as we have already said, we told Banijay UK, the makers of MasterChef, that action must be taken. John Torode’s contract on MasterChef will not be renewed.”
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Source: Mirror
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