Compared to the storm under which he retreated from public life, Gregg Wallace’s return to social media this week was surprisingly low key.
No Cockney banter, no grinning selfies, no showing off his post-health kick dad bod.
Rather, the 60-year-old erstwhile MasterChef presenter reappeared (at least a pair of hands, which may or may not have been his, did) with a 30-second video for his Instagram followers about making protein pancakes.
The video had no voiceover, not even a recipe, just an accompanying note from Gregg that read ‘easy n’ healthy Gregg Wallace Health’, a reference to his new lifestyle business.
It’s now ten weeks since the greengrocer-turned-television star’s career spectacularly derailed amid a flurry of claims of inappropriate behaviour during his 19-year stint as co-host of MasterChef.
It was announced the father-of-three would be stepping back from the BBC show amid an investigation into his conduct. It later emerged that 13 individuals, including Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, had reportedly accused him of ‘wrong’ and ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming across a range of shows over a 17-year period.
Gregg Wallace stepped back from MasterChef amid an investigation into his conduct over a period of 17 years
Three days after the announcement, the presenter landed himself with more opprobrium when he declared that his accusers were ‘middle-class women of a certain age’ and claimed that ‘absolutely none’ of the staff on his other shows had complained about him.
It was an extraordinary statement. Afterwards, Gregg released a somewhat red-faced apology, stating: ‘I wasn’t in a good headspace when I posted it. I’ve been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion.’
Lawyers, meanwhile, said it was entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.
And then came silence – until this week.
Gregg’s last post on social media (he still has 224,000 followers on Instagram) was on November 27 – just one day before the allegations against him made headlines.
So just what has been going on in the world of the once perennially chirpy, now curiously quiet, Gregg Wallace?
According to locals in the peaceful Kent village of Biddenden, near to Gregg’s home, he has been ‘lying low’ here too.
One said: ‘He always used to say hello. We haven’t seen or heard him for weeks.’
MasterChef: The Professionals goes into production this summer. A review into the presenter’s behaviour is due to be concluded at the end of the month, the Mail understands
Neither has the presenter been seen picking up fish from his local farm shop, which he previously described in a much-mocked account of his daily routine.
A worker at the Hartley Farm Shop and Cafe, in nearby Cranbrook, told the Mail: ‘I’ve not seen him since the whole fallout. He was always having a laugh in here with people. It’s a shame really.’
The Mail understands that the ‘review’ into Gregg’s behaviour on MasterChef is due to be concluded by the end of the month, but that he has yet to be interviewed by the external team in charge of it, who were commissioned by production company Banijay.
A spokesman for Banijay said the investigation is still ongoing and there was no ‘date for issue’ at this stage.
But if it was done and dusted before March, that would allow the team to make a decision about who should present the next iteration in the massively successful series, which will be MasterChef: The Professionals which goes into production this summer.
So with the future of his TV career decidedly uncertain, has Gregg been licking his wounds all this time, or has the perpetual chameleon – he started out as a cabbie and window cleaner – been coming up with new plans?
It’s not in the nature of the ever-optimistic Gregg to admit defeat and television sources tell the Mail that while he has been spending time with his family he’s also been focusing on Gregg Wallace Health.
‘That’s his main other thing outside of the TV presenting,’ says one source.
This is not, in fact, a new venture – he launched the subscription-based platform in 2019.
It offers weekly meal plans and recipes, plus motivation and nutritional advice for those wanting to emulate Gregg’s own journey – he shed five stone after overhauling his lifestyle – and drop some pounds.
Gregg’s foray back onto social media understandably shows how importantly he views his business.
On Instagram, the protein pancakes video was swiftly followed by a similar post for breakfast crumble. ‘Healthy shouldn’t be dull, expensive or difficult,’ was the brief missive accompanying the latter.
On Thursday night Gregg shared his third meal inspiration video of the week – veggie noodles; while Friday morning there was a post in praise of cottage cheese.
The presenter (he manages his own Instagram account) kept a lid on personal messages, but did make sure to ‘like’ almost every single one of the long string of comments from followers welcoming his return. There was even the occasional ‘hi’ and an ‘x’.
As for those seeking recipes, he directed them to his website greggwallace.health.
But whereas once he was an almost daily presence on the health platform’s Instagram page, too, followers will note that 2025 has begun with a new frontwoman – all be it one with a familiar face.
Because the Mail can reveal she is none other than Gregg’s daughter, Libby, one of his two grown-up children from his second marriage to pastry chef Denise Lovell, to whom he was married to between 1999 and 2004. She died in 2017.
Gregg with his daughter Libby, who has emerged as a frontwoman for the Gregg Wallace Health brand on Instagram
Libby, 29, who got engaged last October and bears an uncanny resemblance to her father, had been a back office presence in her dad’s business, but emerged from behind the camera on January 12.
Not that the smiling blonde says who her father is.
‘Hi lovelies. So I just wanted to introduce myself,’ she says. ‘I’m Libby. I am one of the team from behind the scenes at GWH [Gregg Wallace Health]. I helped build this business, four years ago during lockdown, and I have been running our social media ever since.
‘So I thought it was about time that I hold myself responsible and I come out and I share my journey with you. I am on my own personal weight loss journey, I have decided to follow the Gregg Wallace Health plan completely.
‘I know lots of you will be going, why haven’t you already done that, you’ve been running it for four years. I know, I watched person after person after person achieve their dreams and smash their goals and I don’t know, I don’t know why to be perfectly honest with you. I think life got in the way.’
She goes on, in frank and engaging fashion (a much softer version of her dad), to say she does not like the way she looks and that she is getting married next year and wants to ‘feel nice’, not just for her wedding but ‘for my life’.
She has continued to post videos, most recently on Monday when she spoke of her crashing ‘fear of failure’, after going public with her weight loss journey.
As a screen presence, she is charming. But it is, of course, Gregg’s persona, advice and experience that most subscribers sign up for.
He, meanwhile, appeared to be in a reflective mood this week.
In a particularly contemplative blog, titled ‘Progress not Perfection’ for health plan followers, he mused: ‘What is perfection anyway? No such thing right?’
In words that might seem laced with irony, given all that has passed, he goes on: ‘We should all of us be trying to improve our lives bit by bit.
‘In terms of our weight and our health that’s incredibly important. But we may also want to be trying to get a little bit happier, a little bit more financially secure or perhaps just a little bit more chilled out.’
Later he adds: ‘Just be mindful of all the decisions that we make throughout the day. Just ask yourself what you can do that will make each of these a little bit better.
‘Can you imagine the progress you would make if you constantly did that? Don’t worry ever and I mean this about slipping up! Mistakes are never the end of your journey. See them for what they really are, they are simply slip ups, you are only human. If you learn a lesson from them that is a major step forward.’
Following his exit from the BBC cookery show, Gregg Wallace Health slashed prices and offered customers £40 off an £89.99 annual subscription, which could, of course, simply have been a marketing tactic in advance of the new year period when many people turn to self improvement.
The discount no longer seems to apply, but the website – which includes recipes curated by Anna, his wife of nine years – proudly declares ‘Lose Weight & Keep It Off!’ promising to help users find a ‘sustainable way to lose weight’ with ‘lasting results’.
While the presenter has been spending time with his family since the allegations he’s also been focusing on his health business
Wallace has launched a new project flogging £8 ready meals
At the time controversy flared, Gregg had already revealed plans to launch a range of healthy frozen ready meals; plans that he may well have intended to pursue with a little more fanfare than the eventual – distinctly low key – launch last month.
The meals, which include bang bang chicken noodles and lentil and aubergine parmigiana can be ordered from his website in packs of five or eight, at £8 or £7.50 each.
Gregg, however, has had little to say about them – save for a launch video, which appears to have been filmed before the MasterChef debacle – it is dated November 28.
On Thursday morning he posted a short video to his Instagram Stories; it was of a countryside view – presumably that of the fields he sees each morning from the very comfortable Kent farmhouse he shares with Anna, 37, her mother Rina and their son Sid, five.
‘Make a great start. What are you not gonna do today?’ declares the motivational caption. The musical accompaniment? The Korgis’ 1980 hit Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime. Whether this is another reference to his own journey we’ll never know.
A TV source says: ‘He’s basically got to wait until this investigation is concluded, so there is not a lot he can do until that’s done. So, he is in a bit of a hiatus at the moment and a bit of limbo. He is waiting to see.
‘He’s used to working. MasterChef is pretty much a year-round, full-time job. So, he is used to doing that. But he has just got to wait for this investigation to run its course.
‘I think he has come to the realisation over time that it is serious stuff.’
Perhaps, then, Gregg is heeding his own advice.
In another health blog post, on January 30, he had this to say: ‘Change we know can be uncomfortable. But please it won’t take long till your new routine routines seem incredibly natural, so natural in fact that you are no longer even considering them. They just happen. As this develops and as your new routines become your new normal you will look in the mirror one day and realise you look completely different.’
While Anna, too, has been been notably quiet with personal posts – no sharing Christmas photographs, meals out or holidays – she has, however, shared the occasional motivational message on her Instagram Stories.
‘Hang in there… In two weeks today we will have our first 5pm sunset,’ read one. ‘Brighter days and better things are coming,’ read another.
Whether brighter times see Gregg Wallace return to television screens remain to be seen.
