Penny Lancaster has revealed she had no warning before her husband Sir Rod Stewart’s posted a blistering take down of Gregg Wallace in her defence last year.
Today speaking on My Life at Christmas with Anita Rani, she reflected on the fact that ‘both of the people’ she called out in her memoir have faced their comeuppance.
‘Talk about timing!’ she 54-year-old laughed, still incredulous at how events have unfolded.
One of those people is Mone, a Conservative life peer since 2015, whose assets were frozen following a PPE scandal.
The other is Gregg Wallace, who lost his long-standing MasterChef role in July 2025 after a number of behaviour complaints were upheld against him, which he denies.
Wallace dug himself an even deeper hole when he complained that only ‘middle-class women of a certain age’ had criticised his misogynistic behaviour.
‘Talk about stabbing yourself in the foot! Was that his comeback? It just goes to show he’s gone so long without consequences, he doesn’t see what he did wrong,’ Penny said of Gregg’s comment about middle class women of a certain age.
When other women spoke out about Wallace, it was actually her husband, Sir Rod, who publicly called him out.
Stewart posted on Instagram that Wallace was a ‘tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’ who had ‘humiliated my wife.’
Penny, meanwhile, was serving on jury duty at Chelmsford Crown Court, completely unaware of the post.
Her first reaction was pure shock as her phone was off; then as she pulled in to her driveway she saw the floods of text messages.
‘Oooooh Jeeeesus!’ I remember thinking,’ she admitted, laughing at the memory.
But she also understood why Rod felt compelled to speak.
She stated that she thought her husband spoke out after reading about other women sharing their negative encounters with Wallace.
‘I said, “I wish you had told me, so I could have prepared myself,”‘ Penny said.
She wanted to be ready for the attention that would inevitably follow.
Her agent quickly called, asking for her version of events, but she refused to give interviews.
Instead, the star worked directly with the investigating team to ensure her side of the story was properly documented.
Penny expressed that she wished to handle the situation through official channels as opposed to doing press interviews.
Rod’s Instagram post, she believes, showed that she was not alone in facing Wallace.
It also highlighted that people close to her were willing to defend her publicly.
Penny emphasised that it was still frustrating that the altercation even happened full stop, but it also underscores why these conversations about bullying and accountability are so necessary.
‘I hope people learn from it,’ she said.
While she wishes Rod had given her a heads-up about the Instagram post, she appreciated the sentiment – and it also kick-started more women to speak out.
Looking back, Penny reserves part of her criticism for Wallace’s production team.
She said they allowed him ‘to carry on that way’ because nobody stepped in to help her back in 2021.
Fans will remember her tearful appearance on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021.
It was an emotional moment that captured the stress and isolation she experienced during filming.
She has now insisted more should have been done to protect her at the time.
The lack of support compounded her sense of frustration and helplessness.
Despite the stress, Lancaster admits she now feels a sense of closure.
Seeing Wallace and Mone face consequences has been both ‘satisfying and surreal,’ she said.
She points out that staying quiet at the time was a strategic choice, not a sign of weakness.
‘It’s about timing and how you handle situations like that,’ she said firmly.
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