Gregg Wallace 'threw John Torode under bus' after relationship 'break down'

Following TV chef John Torode's axing from MasterChef, it has been reported that his former co-host Gregg Wallace was feeding information about him during the investigation into his own behaviour. An eight-month probe into Wallace was recently conducted after more than 50 people issued complaints about misconduct, including inappropriate sexual behaviour.

A new report claimed that the two were "never friends," despite working together on the BBC cooking series for 20 years. According to the report, Wallace was briefing against Torode when the broadcaster and production company were investigating allegations of misconduct against him. Wallace was eventually sacked from the BBC after 45 out of 83 claims against him, such as "unwanted physical contact," "being in a state of undress," bullying, and inappropriate jokes, were upheld.

Earlier this week, Torode was also axed after being accused of using "an extremely offensive racist term," which he admitted to having "no recollection" of doing.

In his Instagram statement, the 59-year-old claimed: "The person that I was speaking with did not believe that it was intended in a malicious way and that I apologised immediately afterwards."

It has since been reported that Torode used the N-word at a season filming wrap party in 2019 while singing along to Kanye West's 2005 hit, Gold Digger.

However, BBC News claimed that the allegation relates to an incident the year before, where the chef allegedly used the same word at the end of filming and directed it at a member of staff on MasterChef.

While Torode insists he has no memory of using the word, lawyers Lewis Silkin have upheld the complaint and said any racist language is "wholly unacceptable."

This comes as it was revealed that nine allegations were made against the MasterChef presenter between 2012 and 2019.

According to investigators, two were not substantiated, and six had insufficient evidence. This includes other allegations of abusive language towards junior production staff and sexual language.

The BBC and Banijay were said to be at odds with each other over the saga, with Banijay not initially planning to sack Torode but the BBC's director general, Tim Davie, insisting on drawing "a line in the sand" over it.