MasterChef's Gregg Wallace 'told rude joke after rude joke' on set, says co-host John Torrode's wife Lisa Faulkner

Actress Lisa Faulkner, who married MasterChef host John Torode in 2019, opened up about her experience as a contestant on the celebrity edition of the cooking competition show in 2010. She revealed at the Cheltenham Literary Festival over the weekend that she had overheard Wallace telling inappropriate jokes while filming the show.

According to The Sun, Lisa told the audience at the festival: “Greg was telling – I’m probably not allowed to say this… Greg 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’.”

Her husband was also on stage to promote the couple’s new book while she revealed the details. He said: “It’s changed quite a lot really…”

It comes after it was revealed that Wallace was investigated by the BBC for allegedly making inappropriate comments towards a female staff while working on the gameshow Impossible Celebrities in 2018. A source close to the incident said: “Gregg was accused of making inappropriate comments to a younger, female member of the production team. He is said to have been boasting about his sex life with his partner at the time.

“At one point, Gregg was also accused of taking his top off in front of the woman which felt inappropriate. Gregg appeared to think it was all just banter and is also said to have made some comments in front of the live audience. The team working on the show were mortified and told BBC top brass what had happened.”

Wallace confirmed that the investigation took place, but denied any comments made were sexual in nature. He said: “With reference to what's in the newspapers, these allegations were investigated by the BBC six years ago - and my comments were found to be not sexual. I repeat not sexual. Thank you for your time."

The TV presenter was also allegedly told to “moderate” his behaviour during an incident while filming at a Nestle factory for the documentary show Inside The Factory, in which he allegedly spoke towards female staff members in a “derogatory manner”. He subsequently quit the show in 2023, adding: “There was an argument inside the factory, the reporting isn’t accurate. There was an issue and I thought this is the perfect time to come out.”

“I don’t want to discuss the issue but it wasn’t what the papers said it was. There was nothing offensive to anybody, that’s just people guessing. It was a decent time to come out.”