Melanie Sykes has dramatically claimed Gino D’Acampo was “pleased with himself” following an off-screen incident.

The presenter, 55, quit TV after working with under fire ex MasterChef host Gregg Wallace and has spoke out about her time working with D’Acampo. In an urgent plea, Melanie has demanded TV bosses to take responsibility and remove individuals who contribute to a sexist culture.

She he claimed the industry has “created monsters” in the wake of allegations made against D’Acampo. He has been hit with a series of allegations over alleged inappropriate behaviour spanning over 12 years – which he denies. Melanie had first hand experiences of working with D’Acampo on their ITV daytime show Let’s Do Lunch with Gino & Mel from 2011 to 2014.

The TV star quit the industry for good in 2021 following an inappropriate comment from Gregg Wallace. Melanie has spoke out against D’Acampo as well as executives for allowing such figures on TV as well as on game show Celebrity Juice, where he was a regular fixture. She has claimed he was “pleased” with the power he had behind the scenes.

“Celebrity Juice was an abomination, the industry creates monsters,” she declared on her YouTube channel. “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.” She added: “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**s way of responding to bad behaviour from a human being in the workspace.” D’Acampo is facing accusations of “distressing” and “sexually inappropriate” behaviour after dozens of people detailed experiences described variously as “unacceptable, distressing and horrendous”.

The claims to ITV News have been made over a period spanning more than 12 years with over 40 people said to have come forward. D’Acampo has “firmly denied” the allegations, adding that they were “deeply upsetting”. In the investigation, one woman claimed D’Acampo told her he would “like to turn me over and f*** me up the a*** against the kitchen counter” while working on a photoshoot.

Another alleged that when she went to brief him about a location shoot, he opened the door in his boxer shorts and made jokes about his privates, leaving her feeling uncomfortable. While a separate claim accused D’Acampo of threatening a junior member of staff on Gino’s Italian Express. “I was present when Gino said to the runner, ‘If you don’t get me a Cornetto, I will f*** your girlfriend’,” one female crew member said.

Responding to the claims in their entirety in a statement to ITV News, Gino said: “I have been told by ITN news that allegations have been made about me acting inappropriately, some dating back over ten years ago. I have never been made aware of these matters previously and the allegations are firmly denied. I would not do anything that I thought would upset or distress anyone. This is simply not in my nature. I do not recognise the version of events being put to me.

“Not only have these allegations never been raised with me before, I have been repeatedly supported by executives at the highest level and was commissioned on prime-time programmes during the period in which it is now suggested I was acting inappropriately. I am a father, husband and have worked with well over 1,500 people on around 80 productions in my career, which I have been so proud of. I take such matters extremely seriously and the suggestion that I have acted in an improper way against is deeply upsetting.”

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