Gregg Wallace sobs as he shares John Torode verdict: 'We never got on'

Gregg Wallace has uttered just four words in response to his MasterChef co-star John Torode's sacking from the BBC programme. Breaking down in tears in a new interview with The Sun, the shamed presenter insisted he is "not a wrong'un" or a "sex pest" - and finally responded to John Torode's sacking over using a "racist" term.

An allegation surfaced of Torode using "an extremely offensive racist term", leading to his sacking from the show. Wallace was also sacked after 45 out of 83 allegations against him were upheld, including one of groping a woman.

But speaking about the allegations against Torode, he said: "He's not a racist. I've known John for 30 years.

"And as evidence of that, I'll show you the incredible diversity of the people that he has championed, MasterChef winners, over the years. There is no way that man is a racist. No way. And my sympathies go out to John because I don't want anybody to go through what I've been through."

Later, he explained: "We never really did get on that well. We're two very, very different characters. But we made bloody good telly together for 20 years."

Gregg said his own incidence of "groping" was 15 years ago while he was "drunk at a party", claiming he had his "hand on a girl's bum". He told The Sun that he was "dating but not married" at the time and thought the pair had been "flirting" after she gave him her phone number.

And one of the other allegations upheld was of him parading around the BBC studio wearing a sock on his penis. He clarified: "That was 18 years ago. The studio is shut, there's no contestants."

He claims he wore a bow tie and a shirt, along with covering his penis with the sock, and opened the door to four of his friends, "went 'Wahey!' and shut the door again". He claims "nobody was distressed" by the incident.