Gregg Wallace’s ghostwriter says he sexually harassed her

This story contains graphic details of alleged sexual harassment.

Kyle claimed Wallace shared explicit details of his own sex life when working on the book between May and August 2012.

The now 47-year-old also alleges Wallace inappropriately touched her thigh when she was sitting in the passenger seat of his sports car, and felt her bottom after he appeared at the Good Food Show in Birmingham.

Kyle said she had chosen to speak out to highlight what she described as Wallace’s “predatory” behaviour.

Newsnight put these fresh allegations to Wallace’s representatives on Tuesday.

The presenter's lawyers have strongly denied he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.

When beginning work with Wallace on the book, Kyle said: "The first interview we did was pretty straightforward, and then we agreed to meet whenever he was available."

Kyle, who has written numerous books, alleges that on the “second or third interview”, which had taken place in his own restaurant around 8am to account for Wallace’s “very busy schedule filming”, he “started to talk about his love life”.

“He was dating lots of different women. And he started telling me about these dates, who the women were, where he met them. And then in very graphic details, what sexual acts they had done together,” Kyle said.

"He talked about spanking a lot. He also talked about one of his girlfriends on all fours in front of a mirror. He talked in incredibly sexual detail, which at the time it was just so shocking because it was completely unnecessary for the book."

On one occasion, she said a meeting was arranged at Wallace’s flat, and he opened the door "completely naked, except for a towel around his waist".

Wallace, she claims, said he had just got back from the gym and had a shower and said it would be OK for her to go into the living room.

Kyle said she asked Wallace: "Look, can you just go and get dressed?"

She said that she sat on the sofa while waiting for him. Wallace then returned in the towel and, she claims, said his trousers were folded behind the cushion she was next to.

“Then I kind of looked up and then he dropped the towel,” she said.

Newsnight asked whether the towel dropping could have been an accident, to which Ms Kyle said “definitely not”.

“I felt quite vulnerable because I'm on my own in a flat with a man. He's naked," she said.

Kyle, who was a single parent at the time, had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), before beginning the project.

The NDA said the “writer understands that Wallace enjoys a high public profile and her obligations to him of loyalty and confidentiality are therefore of particular significance".

“I was worried about losing the job,” she said, “because I'd given up all the work for this job. So I thought to myself... I'm just going to try and navigate this, [I’ll] just try and push on through," she said. “It was just really revolting."

At another meeting for the book, Kyle said that, during a restaurant meal, the TV presenter made other sexualised comments, including: “If you won't let me sleep with you, would you lick my [anus]?"

She said another comment, while she was eating dessert, included: “What would you think if I put some of the Eton Mess you're eating on my willy, then?”

Kyle said it was “sickening... obscene. It was, you know, obviously designed to cause discomfort of some sort”.

On another occasion when they were finishing an interview at his flat, while saying goodbye, she said, Wallace initiated a “really big hug”.

“His face was just right next to mine... I just completely froze.”

She alleges that Wallace, speaking into her ear, said: “Just give me a little kiss. Just a little one.”

Kyle said she then “paused” and “he either let go or I kind of pushed him off a little bit. And, and then I just really quickly wanted to get away.”

She said she left “in tears”.