Kirstie Allsopp says she witnessed sexual comments by Gregg Wallace while working with him

Kirstie Allsopp: He was there with his wife, or I think she might have been his girlfriend. She left the room and he made a comment about what they did in the bedroom. I’m not going to repeat the comment, but I was very shocked. I blushed to the roots of my hair, I had that strange feeling you have when you are embarrassed when you want to cry. And I just thought, God, I wonder if she knows that he says those things when she leaves the room. She was quite a lot younger than him, and it was a sort of comment he seemed to be showing off. Anyway, I was very embarrassed, but I didn’t say anything, stupidly, and I got on with doing what I was supposed to do, and then that was it.
Cathy Newman: And why do you think you didn’t say anything at the time? What was it that made you sort of shut up?
Kirstie Allsopp: Because, you don’t. Because there’s a whole production team and there are lots of other people there and they rented a studio and it’s an evening’s work for a lot of people. And if you make a fuss, you’re rocking the boat.
Cathy Newman: Do you think you maybe didn’t think you could raise it because he was a star? He had power and you didn’t feel you could stand up to him?
Kirstie Allsopp: No, Cathy, you know what? I’d be lying if I said it was that. I think it was that there were a lot of people there doing a job. And I thought, if I make a fuss about this, it will delay everything. It will wreck the atmosphere. I’m very lucky in my work. It’s very infrequently do I feel that emotion.
Cathy Newman: So when he says today, ‘middle-class women of a certain age are the ones complaining’. How do you respond to that?
Kirstie Allsopp: For a start, I think the narrative is that it’s women who are too sort of unsexy, too old, to get his jokes. I think it’s a narrative of, ‘oh no, you’re speaking out because you just don’t get it. You’re too old, you’re all dried up old hags’. That’s what I feel that he’s saying. But I think that the reason, if it is true and I don’t think it’s true, I think a lot of women have come out who are not middle-class women of a certain age, that’s what I’ve been given to understand. But if it were true, let’s say it were true. Those are the women with the power. Those are the women who should be speaking out. It’s Sunday. I am about to host a work event for my partner. I’ve got a lot on today. The last thing I want to do, bless Channel Four News, is be talking to you. But I’m here because it is important that people speak out. Kirsty Wark did it, other women did it. They’d been slightly shouted down. Gregg Wallace has come back, leaned in, said it’s ‘middle-class women of a certain age’. So it’s incumbent on everyone who has had an experience with Gregg Wallace that was uncomfortable to say he does this. This is a modus operandi.
Cathy Newman: With all this coming out. Do you think of other big name presenters who perhaps behaved inappropriately, who haven’t been disciplined, who should be feeling a bit uncomfortable at the moment?
Kirstie Allsopp: Yes.
Cathy Newman: You’re not going to name them?
Kirstie Allsop: No, I’m not going to name them. I’ve stepped up on this one. Yes, of course, we do know people. But I think what’s really important to remember is that my experience with Gregg Wallace was quite a long time ago. My experience with another person who I think can behave badly was a while ago. I hope that the majority of people have changed. I hope the people have learned. I don’t like the idea of a cancel culture.