Inside John Torode's MasterChef sacking as he was given 'lifeline' after using 'worst racial slur'
John Torode's time on MasterChef came to an end after he admitted he was involved in a racism allegation. Shortly after the presenter, 59, made the revelation, the BBC and production company Banijay confirmed his contract on the hit culinary show would not be renewed.
It came as his former co-host Gregg Wallace , 60, was also relieved of his position on the show. Torode claims he had "no recollection" of the incident in question, but is said to have used an "extremely offensive racist term".
As the claims against him were upheld, Torode was stood down from fronting the long-running show.
Despite Torode claiming to not remember the moment, BBC star and former creative director at Banijay's Endemol Shine, Richard Osman, has opened up on the situation. He has claimed that the presenter was offered the option to do a training course and take a year off from the show after the allegation was upheld.
Speaking on his The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Osman said: "They took John Torode aside, this was my understanding of the whole situation, and said: 'We believe that this happened. We believe that you used this language.' He denied it.
"They said to him - whether this was the BBC or Banijay - they said to him, 'We will accept if you want to take a year off, you have to do a mandatory training course to understand and accept that this is not something we particularly want in our workplace.'
"That was denied. He said, 'Of course I'm not going to do that. I didn't do this in the first place anyway so why would I ever do this?'"
Osman claimed that this then led to Torode being let go. "John Torode said, 'The first I knew about it was I read it in the papers.' And my understanding is that's not true - the first thing he knew about it was when he was told it," Osman went on.
Despite claims by Torode that the BBC asked for his resignation and to blame his mental health, Osman has a different recollection of events. He said: "The only conversation was, 'We believe this happened. We will give you a second chance, a lifeline, which is you take a year, you take a series off, you go and do something, talk to people who maybe persuade you that this is not the way to act in a certain workplace.' And he said that he was not prepared to do that."
While the allegation was upheld, Osman alleged there were a number of other issues that hadn't been, but only because they couldn't be for certain what had happened. "But, you know, on this particular occasion, it's not woke gone mad," Osman said.
"You know, he used, I think, probably the worst racial slur there is. And they found that to be substantively true. They found evidence that they were happy with — that that was true.
"He is saying, 'I definitely didn't do it. I certainly can't remember it,' but that one was upheld."
Torode is currently planning to take legal action against the BBC over his sacking. Yesterday, a Mirror source was told: He wants to pursue them for unfair dismissal.
"He's telling people there is no proof of his supposed comment. It was not in a work capacity, it was just hearsay. John is determined to clear his name."
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