Wallace stepped away from his role on MasterChef in November 2024 while complaints made to the BBC, including from broadcaster Kirsty Wark, who was a Celebrity MasterChef contestant in 2011 and who said he told ‘sexualised’ jokes during filming, were investigated.
Now the BBC has said that it has been approached by more than 50 more people with new allegations about the presenter, which have been denied by Wallace.
In November, MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK instructed law firm Lewis Silkin to conduct an investigation into allegations against Wallace. The report on the separate claims made last year is due to be published in the next few days.
In a statement published on Wallace’s social media account, the former presenter said that he had been cleared of the ‘most serious and sensational’ accusations, including allegations from public figures, by the Silkin report and hit back at the BBC for ‘peddling baseless and sensationalised gossip’ with its reporting.
He added that the report had found him guilty of using inappropriate language, for which he apologised ‘without reservation’.
In the statement Wallace also says his neurodiversity, which he says has now been formally diagnosed as autism, was discussed by colleagues during his time presenting MasterChef says that nothing was done to protect him.
It has since been revealed that the 60-year-old was rushed to hospital on 6 July with a suspected heart attack after experiencing two days of chest pains.
While the majority of the new allegations made to the BBC were over inappropriate sexual comments, the broadcaster reported that 11 women have accused him of inappropriate sexual behaviour, such as groping and touching, which Wallace has denied.
Wallace’s full statement reads: “I have taken the decision to speak out ahead of the publication of the Silkins report - a decision I do not take lightly.
“But after 21 years of loyal service to the BBC, I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged to protect others.
“I have now been cleared by the Silkin’s report of the most serious and sensational accusations made against me.
“The most damaging claims (including allegations from public figures, which have not been upheld) were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.
“My decision to go public now is also driven by the fact the BBC News division are intending to platform legally unsafe accusations including claims which have already been investigated and not upheld by the BBC and found not credible by Silkins.
“The BBC is no longer providing balanced and impartial public service journalism. It is peddling baseless and sensationalised gossip masquerading as properly corroborated stories.
“The BBC is choosing to allow BBC News to run with this uncorroborated tittle tattle in an attempt to ‘get ahead’ of the Silkins summary report and derail what has been an extremely thorough process.
“This feels to me like BBC News is chasing slanderous click-bait rather than delivering impartial journalism.
“To be clear, the Silkins Report exonerates me of all the serious allegations which made the headlines last year and finds me primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018.
“I recognise that some of my humour and language at times was inappropriate. For that, I apologise without reservation. But I was never the caricature now being sold for clicks.
“I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer. A real person with warmth, character, rough edges and all. For over two decades that authenticity was part of the band. Now in a sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem.
“My neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of MasterChef.
“Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over 20 years. That failure is now being quietly buried.
“Unfortunately, the full report (over 200 pages) will never be seen. Later this week the BBC will publish a short Executive Summary.
“What really concerns me about the short summary is others who have been found guilty of serious allegations have been erased from the published version of events. I, and I’m sure the public, would like to know why.
“I will not go quietly. I will not be cancelled for convenience. I was tried by media and hung out to dry well before the facts were established. The full story of this incredible injustice must be told, and it is very much a matter of public interest.”