Gregg Wallace quits BBC series and opens up on real reason admitting ‘it’s not easy’

GREGG Wallace has decided to step back from presenting BBC series Inside The Factory to focus on his autistic son.

Gregg, 58, hosted the show last year with co-star Cherry Healey and the pair travelled the country to explore how food products were made.

The Masterchef star said it required him to spend too much time away from his family when his son, who is non-verbal in addition to his autism, needed him most.

Gregg, who shares Sid with his partner Anne-Marie (Anna) Sterpini, said: “So I’ve made a decision that I’m actually not going to do Inside The Factory any more.

“It’s a good time to stop doing it because there’s actually 12 episodes in the can…

“So I wouldn’t have been filming for a while anyway so it just seemed like a good idea to stop it.”

The TV star will continue to present Masterchef and focus on his son with Anne-Marie, who he hailed a “wonderful mum”.

But he admitted on Gaby Roslin’s BBC Radio London show today: “It’s not easy.”

“Imagine a child that you can’t threaten or bribe and that’s basically what you’ve got.

“You’ve got a little boy who’s cuddly and happy and naughty, like any little boy would be, but he can’t speak, he can’t talk to you, so he gets frustrated because he finds it difficult to tell you what exactly it is he needs.

“Right now, we need to find education for him and I can’t just leave that to Anna – that’s a big, big decision.

“I mean, all parents worry about the schools that children will go to. Ours is even more highlighted because of poor little Sid’s issues.”

Gregg – who has been divorced three times – married fourth wife Anne-Marie back in 2016.

When he’s not busy taking over the world of MasterChef, he enjoys a cosy home life with the caterer, who made contact with him online.

It happened after she tweeted the former greengrocer to ask if rhubarb really went with duck, after seeing him trying the recipe on a cooking TV show.

Gregg told HELLO! Magazine: “I just looked at Anna’s photo and thought, ‘Wow, she’s pretty’. So yes, rhubarb, which was considered an aphrodisiac in medieval times, brought us together.”