Gregg Wallace using his autism as a 'get out of jail free card' is new level of low

It appears that 60-year-old Gregg Wallace isn't familiar with the showbiz term, 'let's face the music'. Instead, he's using neurodivergence to try to excuse his inappropriate behaviour rather than accept responsibility for his actions.

Today, a friend of the MasterChef star told The Times that Wallace cannot wear underpants because of his autism. The unnamed pal said Wallace's exaggerated sensory experience has led to an "inability to wear underwear because of his autistic hypersensitivity to labels and tight clothing".

An initial investigation was launched in November when Wallace was asked to step down from hosting MasterChef, and earlier this week, BBC News reported that more than 50 people have come forward with accusations against the presenter.

These fresh claims of misconduct include allegations that he groped one MasterChef crew member and pulled his trousers down in front of another staff member. Wallace has denied this, but when the allegations first broke earlier this year, he blamed "middle-class women of a certain age", which didn't do him any favours.

While he did apologise for "some" of his language and humour used over the past two decades in a lengthy Instagram post this week, he also mentioned his autism diagnosis.

He said he's planning to sue the BBC and MasterChef creators for discrimination on the grounds of his autism after claiming he's been sacked from the show.

Wallace said his remarks were just "banter", and his autism led him to misread social situations. He also says the report into his alleged misconduct, which will be published imminently, will clear him of the "most serious" allegations against him.

He added: "My neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed across countless seasons of MasterChef. Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over twenty years. That failure is now being quietly buried."

As we wait for the findings to be released, it's important to remember that 13 million people in the UK are neurodivergent with conditions such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and Tourette's syndrome.

You can't just use neurodivergence as justification for using inappropriate language and humour. It's not an excuse, and people like Wallace must be held accountable.

A charity told BBC News this week that autism is "not a free pass for bad behaviour", while another said remarks risked stigmatising the autistic community.

Emily Banks, founder of the neurodiversity training body Enna, summarised the matter perfectly.

She said: "To be clear: being autistic is never an excuse for misconduct. It doesn't absolve anyone of responsibility, and it certainly doesn't mean you can't tell the difference between right and wrong."

Wallace never slips up on screen or during interviews, so why is he allegedly behaving inappropriately when the cameras are off?