Melanie Sykes says she ‘feels sorry’ for TV chef, Gino D’Acampo, after he was accused of several allegations of inappropriate behaviour – something he has denied. In February, ITV News said they had spoken to “over 40 people” in an investigation into the TV chef’s alleged behaviour.
Mel, 55, who worked with the dad-of-three, 48, on ITV’s Let’s Do Lunch with Gino & Mel from 2011 to 2014, has spoken previously about the allegations and blasted the TV industry for “creating monsters.” However, now she says she feels sorry for Gino.
Taking to her YouTube channel, revealing she was suffering from alopecia, she said: “I am experiencing alopecia in quite a significant way. I have lost inches off my hairline at the back. I have probably got half my hair at the moment. The night that it all broke about Gino D’Acampo, I didn’t sleep a wink…I remember thinking, god if I can’t sleep because it has brought everything back to me, how the f*** is he feeling? I actually felt sorry for him. What he has said and does, and alleged to have said and done.”
Mel – who previously said she quit TV after working with Gregg Wallace – also said she has a “heart problem”, which she claims she developed “when all the “Gino D’Acampo bull s**t hit the news”.
Blaming the TV industry for her “stress levels”, she continued: “Suddenly my stress levels in my life shot up because I left my industry years ago, but it won’t leave me alone.” The former Boddingtons girl left television for good in 2021 after she said she received an inappropriate comment from former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace.
Mel then spoke out against Gino following the allegations against the Italian chef and also criticised executives for allowing such figures a platform—particularly on the game show Celebrity Juice, where Gino was a regular fixture. Speaking on her YouTube channel, she said: “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.”
The Mirror has contacted Gino’s reps for comment on this story.
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