Here is the result in plain text:
Shannon Kyle worked on Gregg Wallace’s memoir Life On A Plate. 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.”
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.
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”. Kyle said she asked Wallace: “Look, can you just go and get dressed?”
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?”
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”.
Source link
