Melanie Sykes has spoken out about the Gino D’Acampo scandal, branding the TV industry “a war zone” and urging executives to take responsibility for enabling “misogynistic” talent
Melanie Sykes has waded into the Gino D’Acampo controversy, alleging that the TV industry has “created monsters”, following another celeb speaking out.
The presenter, 55, who previously confessed to quitting TV after working with Gregg Wallace, called on executives to take accountability and oust individuals contributing to a sexist culture, as misconduct allegations emerge against former This Morning chef Gino, which he denies.
Melanie and Gino co-hosted the ITV daytime programme Let’s Do Lunch with Gino and Mel from 2011 to 2014, on which Gino took care of the cooking while Melanie handled the presenting, with celebrity guests joining them each episode. However, Melanie permanently exited television in 2021 following an inappropriate remark from ex-MasterChef host Gregg.
The TV personality condemned the celebrity chef and also criticised executives for giving allegedly problematic figures a platform, particularly on the game show Celebrity Juice, where Gino was a regular. On her YouTube channel, Melanie claimed: “Celebrity Juice was an abomination, the industry creates monsters. I remember once when Gino said to me he can just go up to the powers that be and knock on the door and go in, he doesn’t need a meeting. He was quite pleased with himself that he could do that.
“I feel like I was in a war zone in that industry – 24 years of battling through an industry that didn’t feel right to me anyway. If you’re spending all your time cleaning up people’s s***, just clean the house, clean out the house and start again, that’s all I’m saying.”
Melanie claimed execs mishandled the controversy surrounding Gino, saying they made him take etiquette classes rather than properly dealing with his alleged conduct. She claimed: “Years ago there was some kind of rumblings about the presenter that everybody’s talking about at the moment, went to some kind of etiquette media training because he’s Italian and the translation, he’s not quite getting it… It’s an insult to Italians. A stupid way of dealing with it. A very narrow-minded, dumb a** way of responding to bad behaviour from a human being in the workspace,” reports the Mirror.
Meanwhile, Gino has come under fire following an ITV News investigation earlier this month which brought forward “distressing” and “sexually inappropriate” claims against him. Numerous individuals have given testimony alleging a range of incidents described as “unacceptable”, “distressing”, and “horrendous” during their time working with him across more than 12 years.
The television star, who graced screens on ITV’s Family Fortunes and Gino and Fred: Emission Impossible, is facing old accusations stretching back over a decade. It’s reported that those involved were hesitant to speak up about their alleged interactions with the 48-year-old chef for fear of retaliation.
Gino, however, has “firmly denied” these allegations made by “dozens” of people, stating they were “deeply upsetting”. In one account, a woman referred to as Hannah to maintain her anonymity alleged that she had been subjected to lewd remarks by Gino in 2011.
A woman, who remains anonymous, has come forward alleging that Gino made a rude comment to her, saying he wanted to “turn me over and f*** me up the a*** against the kitchen counter”.
She claims the remark was met with laughter from crew members, but she felt belittled and saw the “shock” and “horror” in their reactions. In an interview with ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia, the woman said: “I definitely saw it as some kind of power play. The very act of what he said was aggressive. He did not think that was an inappropriate thing to say to me.”
Gino’s lawyers have responded, stating: “This allegation from almost 15 years ago has never, until now via a media request for comment, been raised or put to Mr D’Acampo. He does not recall it, nor accept that this happened. Mr D’Acampo is horrified to be accused of ‘power play’ and an ‘aggressive act’. He emphatically and unequivocally denies these allegations.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
