Inside John Torode's MasterChef exit as BBC star shares 'truth' behind axe

BBC star Richard Osman has broken his silence on John Torode's MasterChef exit, claiming that he was given the option to stay on the show by the BBC under one condition. Earlier this week, John Torode was fired from MasterChef after an allegation of him using "an extremely offensive racist term" was upheld.

The TV presenter said in a statement that he had "no recollection" of it happening and that he only found out that his contract had been terminated after the BBC and production company Banijay put out the news. Now, Richard Osman - who was a creative director at Banijay's Endemol Shine - has shared his insight into the situation, claiming that the show had asked the TV presenter to do a training course and take a year off from the show after the allegation was upheld.

Speaking on his podcast, The Rest is Entertainment, Richard explained: "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.

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"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?'"

He added that the show then decided to let John 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," Richard added.

Richard went onto claim that while John had claimed that the BBC asked him to resign and blame his mental health, the "only conversation" had was asking him to do a training course.

Richard explained: "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."

Richard later alleged that there were further claims that weren't upheld. "And by the way, there's all sorts of things that weren't upheld because they couldn't say for certain they believed it happened. But, you know, on this particular occasion, it's not woke gone mad," Richard 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."

The Mirror has reached out to John Torode's representation for comment. Banijay declined to comment.

John Torode is now planning to take legal action against the BBC over his sacking, a source told The Mirror yesterday. “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," they said.

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