Gregg Wallace’s ghostwriter says MasterChef host sexually harassed her

The ghostwriter of Gregg Wallace’s 2012 autobiography has claimed he sexually harassed her.

Shannon Kyle told BBC Newsnight the MasterChef presenter answered the door wearing only a towel, which he later dropped, made “revolting” and “sickening” sexualised suggestions to her, and touched her inappropriately.

Kyle, who was 35 at the time, was writing Wallace’s memoir Life On A Plate.

Lawyers representing Wallace said: “Our client has denied that he has engaged in any such behaviour, and he specifically denies any sexual misconduct with Ms Kyle.”

This story contains graphic details of alleged sexual harassment.

Kyle claimed Wallace shared explicit details of his own sex life when working on the book between May and August 2012.

The now 47-year-old also alleges Wallace inappropriately touched her thigh when she was sitting in the passenger seat of his sports car, and felt her bottom after he appeared at the Good Food Show in Birmingham.

Kyle said she had chosen to speak out to highlight what she described as Wallace’s “predatory” behaviour.

Newsnight put these fresh allegations to Wallace’s representatives on Tuesday.

The presenter’s lawyers have strongly denied he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.

Last week Banijay UK, the production company behind the BBC show, announced that Wallace would be “stepping away from his role on MasterChef” following complaints from individuals in relation to historical allegations of misconduct.

It followed a BBC News investigation which heard from 13 people, spanning a range of ages across five different programmes, who made allegations about inappropriate sexual comments.

Other women have since come forward with further claims against the TV host.

Banijay UK has announced an “immediate, external review to fully and impartially investigate” and said that Wallace was “committed to fully cooperating throughout the process”.

When beginning work with Wallace on the book, Kyle said: “The first interview we did was pretty straightforward, and then we agreed to meet whenever he was available.”

Kyle, who has written numerous books, alleges that on the “second or third interview”, which had taken place in his own restaurant around 8am to account for Wallace’s “very busy schedule filming”, he “started to talk about his love life”.

“He was dating lots of different women. And he started telling me about these dates, who the women were, where he met them. And then in very graphic details, what sexual acts they had done together,” Kyle said.

“He talked about spanking a lot. He also talked about one of his girlfriends on all fours in front of a mirror. He talked in incredibly sexual detail, which at the time it was just so shocking because it was completely unnecessary for the book.”

On one occasion, she said a meeting was arranged at Wallace’s flat, and he opened the door “completely naked, except for a towel around his waist”.

Wallace, she claims, said he had just got back from the gym and had a shower and said it would be OK for her to go into the living room.

Kyle said she asked Wallace: “Look, can you just go and get dressed?”

She said that she sat on the sofa while waiting for him. Wallace then returned in the towel and, she claims, said his trousers were folded behind the cushion she was next to.

“Then I kind of looked up and then he dropped the towel,” she said.

Newsnight asked whether the towel dropping could have been an accident, to which Ms Kyle said “definitely not”.

“I felt quite vulnerable because I’m on my own in a flat with a man. He’s naked,” she said.

Kyle, who was a single parent at the time, had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), before beginning the project.

The NDA said the “writer understands that Wallace enjoys a high public profile and her obligations to him of loyalty and confidentiality are therefore of particular significance”.

“I was worried about losing the job,” she said, “because I’d given up all the work for this job. So I thought to myself… I’m just going to try and navigate this, [I’ll] just try and push on through,” she said. “It was just really revolting.”

At another meeting for the book, Kyle said that, during a restaurant meal, the TV presenter made other sexualised comments, including: “If you won’t let me sleep with you, would you lick my [anus]?”

She said another comment, while she was eating dessert, included: “What would you think if I put some of the Eton Mess you’re eating on my willy, then?”

Kyle said it was “sickening… obscene. It was, you know, obviously designed to cause discomfort of some sort”.

On another occasion when they were finishing an interview at his flat, while saying goodbye, she said, Wallace initiated a “really big hug”.

“His face was just right next to mine… I just completely froze.”

She alleges that Wallace, speaking into her ear, said: “Just give me a little kiss. Just a little one.”

Kyle said she then “paused” and “he either let go or I kind of pushed him off a little bit. And, and then I just really quickly wanted to get away.”

She said she left “in tears”.

The incident at the flat wasn’t the only time Kyle said she faced inappropriate behaviour and harassment from Wallace.

On a separate occasion, she claims that after she was picked up in his sports car on the way to conduct an interview, he inappropriately touched her on the thigh and around the knee when changing gear.

Kyle said the action made her move away and she told him to stop.

She claims that after the interview in a restaurant, while driving home Wallace “started trying to touch my knee and my thigh again”.

She said it was at this point “I started to lose my temper because I really had had enough”.

After threatening to hit Wallace while in the car, she said he stopped and “he didn’t try again”.

But the alleged harassment and inappropriate touching continued at a later date, according to Kyle.

In one of the final interviews for the book, she travelled to Birmingham where Wallace was scheduled to appear at the Good Food Show.

Following the event, she said Wallace inappropriately touched her on the bottom in a hotel car park.

When the allegations about Wallace’s inappropriate comments and behaviour emerged last week, Kyle said it felt “a long time coming”.

She described his behaviour as “predatory”, and said: “Sometimes you do have to speak up for what’s right.”

The ghostwriter claims that Wallace’s alleged actions have been minimised by some as “cheeky barrow-boy humour” but she describes it as “revolting misogyny”.

The BBC has pulled its MasterChef Christmas specials since allegations around Wallace’s behaviour came to light last Thursday.

On Wednesday, Wallace’s co-host John Torode said he found the recent allegations “truly upsetting”.

A BBC spokesperson thanked those who “had the courage to speak out” over allegations about Wallace. It said production company Banijay UK had launched a review because they have the contractual relationship with Wallace.

“He is not employed by the BBC. When issues have been raised with the BBC we have taken action, referring issues to the relevant production company and challenging his behaviour directly as has been widely reported.”

The spokesman said it hoped the independent investigation could be concluded “rigorously and as swiftly as possible”.

The BBC is also running its own review into workplace culture.