Gregg Wallace is leaving Inside The Factory after seven years in order to focus on raising his autistic three-year-old son, Sid.
The TV host, who will continue to judge MasterChef, has already taped next episodes of the documentary series in which he investigates the manufacturing process.
Wallace, 58, revealed on Gaby Roslin’s BBC Radio London programme that he must move away to care for Sid, who is non-verbal in addition to having autism and requires special educational help.
The media celebrity, who shares Sid with his wife Anne-Marie Sterpini, who is 21 years his younger, told the BBC that parenting is “not easy” despite the fact that his kid is a “beautiful, amazing little child” with a “great mother.”
He noted that Inside The Factory requires him to spend a significant amount of time away from his family as he visits industries around the nation.
Wallace continued: ‘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 Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals judge also discussed what it’s like to raise an autistic child.
‘Imagine a child that you can’t threaten or bribe and that’s basically what you’ve got,’ he said.
‘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.’
In July of last year, Wallace initially disclosed his son’s autism diagnosis during an interview on Loose Women.
When asked what indicators he and his wife had observed, he stated that despite being able to walk and run, Sid “wasn’t responding to his name and wasn’t playing peekaboo.”
The TV star continued: ‘He’s got something called global development delay, which means he is not speaking.
‘But he is lovely, he is cuddly… If he wants something, he grabs your hand.’
If they suspected that their child had a problem, he advised them to “go see someone.”
According to the BBC, a new host for Inside The Factory will be revealed in due time.
The corporation’s chief of specialist factual, Jack Bootle, stated that Wallace has been “integral” to the success of the series and has contributed “humour, intellect, and real interest” to one of the BBC’s most popular recurring factual brands.
He praised: ‘I’d like to thank him for all his hard work and commitment to the programme.’
Inside The Factory presented by Wallace, Cherry Healey and Ruth Goodman will launch on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer in April.
Source My Celebrity Life.
