John Torode’s wife Lisa Faulkner steps out for 1st time since ‘furious’ Gregg unfollowed her & his MasterChef co-host
LISA Faulkner has been seen for the first time since a furious Gregg Wallace unfollowed her and husband John Torode on social media.
John, 59, has remained silent since a flurry of allegations were made against his MasterChef co-host Gregg last week.
She was seen wheeling a recycling bin before heading out in a pair of UGG boots this morning.
Gregg is understood to have been left angry at John’s failure to speak out in his defence.
He has since unfollowed John and Lisa on Instagram in a public show of annoyance.
A source said: “Gregg is absolutely furious and is convinced he has done nothing wrong.
“Seeing John keeping quiet amid all of this has irked him hugely. Gregg and John have been colleagues for almost two decades and while they aren’t the closest of friends, Gregg feels John could say something.
“He has deleted them from his Instagram account now and unfollowed both of them.
“It might seem petty from Gregg but he is furious about how this has all played out.”
The pair have hosted MasterChef together since 2005 and John was the best man at Gregg’s wedding in 2016.
But he distanced himself from Gregg the following year and revealed: “It’s funny, we’ve never been friends.”
It comes as a number of TV stars including Sir Rod Stewart, Kirsty Wark and Ulrika Jonsson have made bombshell claims.
Embattled Gregg is facing a probe over alleged sexual comments made to 13 BBC colleagues.
He has stepped down from the popular cooking show while an investigation takes place.
But Gregg was slammed over a bizarre Instagram video posted on Sunday morning in which he blamed “middle-class women of a certain age” for making the complaints.
He apologised in a subsequent video on Monday.
Gregg said: “I want to apologise for any offence that I caused with my post yesterday and any upset I may have caused to a lot of people.
“I wasn’t in a good space when I posted it. I’ve been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion.”
In the post this afternoon, he added: “I felt very alone and under siege yesterday when I posted it.
“It is obvious to me I need to take some time out while this investigation is underway.
“I hope you understand and I do hope you will accept this apology.”
The apology came after he was widely derided over the initial video.
Location Location Location host Kirsty Allsopp and JK Rowling were among the high-profile individuals to call out his comments.
Gregg Wallace's career to date
Gregg Wallace has been a familiar face on TV for years now thanks to his role as a judge on MasterChef - but let's take a closer look at his career so far...
- Gregg Wallace left school at 15 and started his career working on a fruit and veg stall in London.
- In 1989, he started George Allan’s Greengrocers, a company that grew to a turnover of £7.5 million.
- Gregg’s experience in the world of fruit and veg lead to him co-hosting Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4 with Charlie Hicks for seven years.
- He then became the first host of Saturday Kitchen in 2002, a role he held for a year before being replaced by Antony Worrall Thompson in 2003.
- At the same time, Gregg presented a number of food-related TV specials, including Veg Out for the Discovery Channel.
- Gregg landed his most notable TV role as a co-presenter and judge on BBC’s competitive cooking show MasterChef in 2005. He stars alongside John Torode.
- In 2010 Gregg pursued another life-long dream of opening a restaurant. He opened the establishment Wallace & Co. in Putney.
- Then, in 2012, he opened Gregg’s Bar & Grill in a joint venture with the Bermondsey Square Hotel.
- Gregg then scored a hosting gig with the BBC, presenting the documentary Supermarket Secrets in August 2013.
- Unfortunately, times were tough for Gregg, and in the same month, it was reported that one of his companies, West Veg Limited, had folded, owing more than £500,000.
- In 2014, both of his restaurants folded, with Wallace & Co owing suppliers £150,000.
- However, his TV career continued to thrive, and in 2015 became the regularly host of the award-winning documentary food series Eat Well for Less? Gregg helmed the show for eight years before stepping away.
- He also competed on Strictly Come Dancing.
- Gregg then made Telly history again when he revived the BBC’s historical game show Time Commanders.
- More recently, the celebrity chef has presented a number of travel programmes such as Big Weekends with Gregg Wallace, South Africa with Gregg Wallace, and the food mockumentary, Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat.
The Sun understands at least 13 individuals have complained about Gregg’s conduct while working with him between 2005 and 2022.
The BBC said: “We take any issues that are raised with us seriously and we have robust processes in place to deal with them.
“We are always clear that any behaviour which falls below the standards expected by the BBC will not be tolerated.
“Where an individual is contracted directly by an external production company we share any complaints or concerns with that company.”
A spokesperson added: “We will always support them when addressing them.
“It would be inappropriate for us to comment on anything that could form part of Banijay’s ongoing investigation or otherwise influence it.”