Penny Lancaster put on a very Christmassy display on Wednesday night, as she brought along her brother to the Only Fools And Horses Musical gala night at the Eventim Apollo in London.
The model, 53, dressed for the season in a red sequinned midi skirt and coordinating glittery gold high heels.
She added a matching bright red jumper encrusted with gemstones at the collar and layered it over a white button-up shirt underneath.
Penny wrapped up from the cold in a white trench coat and toted a gold clutch as she cosied up to her rarely-seen brother Oliver outside the theatre.
The presenter cut a cheerful figure at the gala, a week after she broke her silence on the investigation into Gregg Wallace over a series of misconduct claims.
Appearing on Loose Women on Thursday, Penny addressed the claims for the first time after her husband Rod Stewart slammed Gregg, following his exit from MasterChef.
Penny Lancaster put on a very Christmassy display on Wednesday night, as she brought along her brother to the Only Fools And Horses Musical gala night at the Eventim Apollo in London
The model, 53, dressed for the season in a red sequinned midi skirt and coordinating glittery gold high heels
She added a matching bright red jumper encrusted with gemstones at the collar and layered it over a white button-up shirt underneath
The host, 60, stepped away from MasterChef after 13 people, including Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, accused him of ‘wrong’ and inappropriate ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming.
Penny said she had been a ‘victim and witness’ to Gregg’s bullying on the set of the BBC show in 2021 and claimed he had ‘intimidated and caused distress to a lot of people’.
She said: ‘I most definitely was witness and victim to some of the bullying and harassment behaviour of Gregg Wallace. And unfortunately a lot of those in the production team were also witness to that.
‘I really feel that he used his position of power to I believe intimidate and cause distress to a lot of people on set.
‘And it’s really unfortunate that someone like him is allowed to get away with that while other stands by and let it happen at the same time. And it’s obvious that a lot of people have come forward.’
Following the news that Gregg had stepped down from MasterChef, Penny’s husband Rod issued a furious rant at the presenter on Instagram.
He branded him a ‘tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’ for ‘humiliating’ his wife when she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021.
Explaining the decision behind Rod’s angry post, Penny said: ‘My husband when he heard people talking about the disturbing behaviours, he couldn’t hold back.
Wrapping up from the cold in a white trench coat and toting a gold clutch, Penny looked cheerful a week after she broke her silence on the investigation into Gregg Wallace over a series of misconduct claims
Appearing on Loose Women on Thursday, Penny addressed the claims for the first time after her husband Rod Stewart slammed Gregg, following his exit from MasterChef
The host, 60, stepped away from MasterChef after 13 people, including Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, accused him of ‘wrong’ and inappropriate ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming
‘Protective husband thought, “I’m not going to stay silent I need to say something,” because he realised how upset I was at the time.’
She added that she hadn’t known about her husband’s Instagram rant until afterwards, saying: ‘I was actually on jury service and you have to turn your phones off completely so I was off grid for a period of time.
‘And when I did turn my phone back on I got a message from a friend saying, “Oh my god, how amazing was that message your husband put out!” And I was like “What message? What has he done?”‘
However, Penny confessed that she also felt ‘vindicated’ by seeing other people come forward with their claims, explaining: ‘I was in shock and then I thought of all the repercussions of all that.
‘Then a day or two afterwards I felt a little bit vindicated that something was put out there. Going back to that whole MeToo it is shocking to think how many women do suffer at the hands of men in powerful position and too afraid to talk out and don’t feel at the time they are going to be supported or listened to.
‘So sometimes it can take a few years later for someone to mention something and it gives the other victims and people that have suffered the confidence to come forward.’
Penny was left in tears during her appearance on the show after Gregg told her off with the ‘serious’ delay of her food and then refused to eat her food.
The moment when Gregg refused to eat Penny’s tartar sauce – blasting her for using ‘whole eggs instead of egg yolks’ – re-emerged after her husband Rod branded him a ‘tubby bully’.
Penny said she had been a ‘victim and witness’ to Gregg’s bullying on the set of the BBC show in 2021 (pictured) and claimed he had ‘intimidated and caused distress to a lot of people’
Following the news that Gregg had stepped down from MasterChef, Penny’s husband Rod issued a furious rant at the presenter on Instagram (pictured with Penny November 2023)
He branded him a ‘tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’ for ‘humiliating’ his wife when she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021
Gregg also chastised Penny – who is a volunteer special police constable – for being late serving her food to critics in the quarter finals, leaving her in tears.
Gregg, stepped away from MasterChef amid accusations of ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming of the hit BBC show.
Following the announcement, Sir Rod wrote: ‘Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you? You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully. Karma got ya’.
The BBC has revealed 13 people have complained about his conduct while working with him over a 17-year period across five shows, from 2005 to 2022.
Kirsty alleges Gregg told stories and jokes of a ‘sexualised nature’ in front of contestants and crew while filming Celebrity MasterChef in 2011 on two occasions and added his gags and comments were ‘really, really in the wrong place’.
‘There were two occasions in particular where he used sexualised language in front of a number of people and it wasn’t as if anyone engaged with this. It was completely one-way traffic. But I think people were uncomfortable and something that I really did not expect to happen’, she said.
The BBC and MasterChef’s production company, Banijay, declined to comment.
In a resurfaced clip from Penny’s time on the show, the former model was humiliated when her fried calamari and homemade tartar sauce went awry, with the judges refusing to taste what was brandied a ‘raw egg/oil milkshake’.
Penny said that she hadn’t known about her husband’s Instagram rant until afterwards, but confessed that she felt ‘vindicated’ by seeing other people come forward with their claims
Following Penny’s eviction from the kitchen in 2021, she shared a cryptic post on Instagram hinting at ‘a person’s behaviour’.
She wrote on Instagram: ‘When you finally learn that a person’s behaviour has more to do with their own struggle than it ever did with you, you learn grace’.
The BBC claims Gregg walked away from MasterChef after BBC News sent a letter to his agent on Tuesday, setting out allegations from 13 people and giving him a right of reply.
They say he was warned after a complaint was raised in 2018, but new historical claims emerged over the summer of 2024.
Gregg is ‘committed to fully cooperating throughout the process’, the show’s production company Banijay UK said.
The chef has since thanked people for their support following accusations he mimicked a sex act and wandered into the MasterChef studio ‘completely naked’ apart from a ‘sock covering his penis’.
Gregg is accused mimicking a sex act in front of a member of the show’s production staff who was kneeling down to clean his trousers during filming, according to the lurid and so-far unsubstantiated allegations.
The grocer turned presenter is also accused of making ‘disgusting sex-related jokes’, including one about an ‘aunt’ while tasting a contestant’s dish during the show.
