Allegations of sexual misconduct against Gregg Wallace continue to come through thick and fast, but nothing could have prepared us for this tale of the time he (allegedly) asked the ghostwriter of his 2012 memoir ‘Life on a Plate’ if she would like to lick his bum hole.
Shannon Kyle told the BBC that Wallace once answered the door wearing only a towel, which he later dropped, made “sickening” sexual suggestions to her, and touched her inappropriately when they worked together on the book between May and August 2012.
Kyle says Wallace felt her bottom after they appeared at the Good Food Show in Birmingham, and gave her ‘thigh a rub’ every time he changed gears in his sports car.
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.” During the “second or third interview”, he “started to talk about his love life”.
Kyle recounts: “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.”
“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.”
One time, Kyle said a meeting was arranged at Wallace’s flat, and he opened the door “completely naked, except for a towel around his waist”. He told her he had just got back from the gym and to make herself comfortable on the couch. Kyle asked him to go and get dressed, and then noticed his trousers were actually folded behind the cushion she was next to.
“Then I kind of looked up and then he dropped the towel,” she said. Whoops?
“I felt quite vulnerable because I’m on my own in a flat with a man. He’s naked,” she said.
At another meeting for the book, Kyle said that, during a meal at a restaurant, Wallace asked: “If you won’t let me sleep with you, would you lick my [anus]?”
Then, while she was eating dessert, he asked: “What would you think if I put some of the Eton Mess you’re eating on my willy, then?”
Grade A flirting by Wallace right there. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t have the desired effect…
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 claims that Wallace whispered into her ear: “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.”
Kyle says she had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), before beginning the project with Gregg Wallace. So I guess that NDA has either expired or the rules go out the window once everyone is accusing him of sexual misconduct and you’ve (allegedly) been a victim too.
Kyle is the 14th woman to accuse Gregg Wallace of sexual misconduct in the last few weeks, and at this rate, you have to think more are coming. Seems like this sort of stuff is always drip-fed into the news cycle and always gets progressively worse, although I’m not sure I can think of anything more horrifying for a woman than being invited to lick Gregg Wallace’s anus. At least he didn’t refer to it as his “buttery biscuit bum hole”, I suppose.
Naturally, lawyers representing the former Masterchef host deny the allegations, saying: “Our client has denied that he has engaged in any such behaviour, and he specifically denies any sexual misconduct with Ms Kyle.” Just another ‘middle class woman of a certain age’, then?
A BBC spokesperson thanked those who “had the courage to speak out” over allegations about Wallace. It said production company Banijay UK has launched a review into Wallace’s behaviour, and the BBC is also running its own review into workplace culture.
