Lorraine Kelly blasts 'strangest thing' about Gregg Wallace MasterChef scandal

Lorraine Kelly has slammed Gregg Wallace for using his autism diagnosis as a defence for his behaviour on MasterChef. The TV presenter was fired from the BBC show over allegations of misconduct - which he denied - with a report published by production company Banijay finding that 45 out of 83 accusations were upheld.

Last week, Gregg hit out at the BBC in a statement, stating that "none of the serious allegations against me were upheld" and that a late autism diagnosis helped him to understand how he communicates.

"To those who’ve shown kindness, thank you. It mattered. This has been brutal. For a working-class man with a direct manner, modern broadcasting has become a dangerous place. I was the headline this time. But I won’t be the last."

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Speaking about how Gregg used his autism diagnosis as a defence, Lorraine said on her ITV show: "Gregg Wallace has released a statement, many statements. He's tried to get ahead of this a lot and he's said many, in my opinion, inappropriate things."

She later added: "It's just quite strange because he has a little boy who has autism as well - I find that bizarre, I find that very strange.

"What's interesting though is those around him who enabled him to be like that.

Gregg shares four-year-old son Sid with his wife Anne-Marie Sterpini, 37, as well as children Tom, 30, and Libby, 27, with ex-wife Denise.

The TV presenter opened up last year about Sid's autism diagnosis, revealing that he is non-verbal. "When he's unhappy, he can't tell us. If he's scared or unwell, he can't tell us. That's quite nerve-racking for a parent," he said in an interview.

On Lorraine, guest Nicola Thorp - who appeared on Coronation Street - called for MasterChef's executive producer to be fired.

"There's two things that need to happen in the entertainment industry - number one, we need a centralised reporting system," Nicola said on ITV's Lorraine.

"The second thing that needs to happen is, instead of firing individual presenters, they need to fire executive producers. I promise you, if not just the presenter but the executive producers get the sack, those exec producers will make sure that everybody on set is treated fairly and make sure people are reporting right to the top."

She later added: "I was made aware of Gregg Wallace a long time ago but people weren't listening about the comments being made."

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