More than a year after facing serious allegations and losing his role on MasterChef, television presenter Gregg Wallace has issued a public apology. However, for those who claim to have endured his conduct, the statement is being dismissed as too little, too late.
A Belated Apology and a Dismissive Past
In a post on his Substack blog last week, Wallace acknowledged that previous remarks he made were "hurtful and wrong." This refers to his 2024 response on Instagram, where he dismissed allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour as coming from "middle-class women of a certain age." In his apology, he suggested his workplace persona was simply matching a culture "engineered from the top down."
This explanation holds no weight for journalist Catriona Innes, who had a personal encounter with Wallace in 2013. She argues that if the numerous allegations are true, his behaviour caused genuine humiliation and discomfort that cannot be excused as a joke.
A Personal Account: "It Wasn't Funny"
Innes recalls meeting Wallace while working as a junior writer at a London magazine, where he was featuring on the cover. She describes an atmosphere of intimidation from the outset. "He was glaring at me," she writes, after making a sexist remark disguised as a joke. When she didn't laugh, Wallace turned to a senior colleague and demanded, "Can't you make her laugh?"
The underlying message of the day, Innes felt, was one of power: "I have the power, you'll do as I am told." The experience was deeply uncomfortable, compounded by reports that Wallace refused to wear underwear during the shoot, leaving the team unsettled. At the time, societal conditioning led her to believe it was "no big deal" and not worth complaining about.
A Pattern of Allegations and a Toxic Culture
Innes's story is not isolated. A BBC News investigation in 2024 heard from 13 people who accused Wallace of making inappropriate sexual comments. It also reported allegations that he groped three women on and off set. Since sharing her own story on social media, Innes says her inbox has been filled with similar accounts from other journalists who worked in the 2000s.
Reflecting now, she sees the incident not as a quirky celebrity anecdote but as a "vile incident that shouldn't have been allowed to happen." She contextualises the silence of victims, explaining that the early 2010s culture was one of "put up, and shut up," where such behaviour was often brushed off as an unpleasant norm, especially when perpetrated by a powerful celebrity.
The team's post-shoot discussion focused on his unpleasantness, with a stylist worrying about returning clothes he had worn without underwear. "We all just tried our best to keep out of his way," Innes states.
Why the Apology Falls Short
For Innes, Wallace's apology fails because it addresses only his words, not the alleged actions behind them. Each new allegation she reads carries the same tone of entitlement and discomfort she witnessed firsthand.
She concludes that change requires more than just victims speaking up. It demands action from witnesses and a systemic shift away from a culture that teaches women to develop a thick skin, plaster on a smile, and normalise feeling deeply uncomfortable. "This has to change," she asserts, arguing that the responsibility lies with everyone to call out harassment and abuse, not just those who experience it directly.
