EXCLUSIVE: MasterChef producer Banijay UK employed a full-time welfare specialist to assist presenter Gregg Wallace as he confronted misconduct allegations.
Two sources inform Deadline that the coach offered bespoke recommendation to Wallace for seven months after claims emerged final yr that he behaved inappropriately on the set of BBC collection MasterChef. Banijay declined to remark.
An individual near Wallace mentioned there have been issues that the tv star could possibly be a risk to his personal security, praising the obligation of care exercised by Banijay. Wallace lately informed The Each day Mail that he contemplated suicide as an avalanche of allegations dominated UK headlines.
Banijay was supporting Wallace on the similar time it engaged regulation agency Lewis Silkin to analyze accusations that he behaved inappropriately on the MasterChef set.
Lewis Silkin has accomplished its work and Banijay is predicted to publish an government abstract of the findings on Monday. The BBC can also be anticipated to make a press release.
Though there is no such thing as a official phrase on Lewis Silkin’s conclusions, the BBC has severed ties with Wallace, telling the presenter in a letter that he’s a risk to the protection of others.
Wallace has acknowledged that he used “inappropriate language” between 2005 and 2018, however argued that extra critical allegations — together with groping and touching girls — had been thrown out by Lewis Silkin.
Wallace has claimed that his habits will be attributed to his current autism analysis, lambasting MasterChef colleagues for “failing to guard me from what I now realise was a harmful atmosphere.”
Wallace has been informed by neurodiversity specialists that he’s unsure of social boundaries. The Occasions of London additionally reported that he has an exaggerated sensory expertise, which has led to an “incapability to put on underwear due to his autistic hypersensitivity to labels and tight clothes.”
BBC Information has reported on a number of allegations towards Wallace, together with a 2012 incident during which he allegedly dropped his trousers in entrance of a feminine junior employee whereas not sporting underwear.
In a letter, the BBC informed Wallace it had weighed up quite a lot of components in reaching its resolution to let him go, together with earlier warnings and the impression his conduct has had on the “BBC’s popularity.”
The Each day Telegraph reported that, in parallel with the Lewis Silkin assessment, the BBC additionally examined Wallace’s conduct on different exhibits, figuring out six incidents of concern courting again to 2005.
The 60-year-old presenter believes he has been the sufferer of incapacity discrimination and has engaged Dan Morrison, a companion at Grosvenor Legislation, to struggle his nook. Lawrence Energy, a barrister at Whitestone Chambers, can also be mentioned to be appearing for Wallace.
A BBC spokeswoman mentioned: “Banijay UK instructed the regulation agency Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations towards Gregg Wallace. We aren’t going to remark till the investigation is full and the findings are printed.”
The BBC faces a dilemma over whether or not to display Season 21 of MasterChef. The season was filmed final yr and Wallace options prominently as a decide up till the finale.
