Gregg Wallace ‘hated’ his time on Strictly Come Dancing and said he would have done better if he was with ‘somebody who liked me’.

The grocer-turned-presenter appeared in the 2014 series of the BBC show where he was paired with pro dancer Aliona Vilani.

He was the first celebrity to be voted off and previously told how he was crying after just two weeks on the show.

Last year he opened up about his experience on Strictly and how he ‘hated it’.

The 60-year-old also previously took a swipe at his dance partner and appeared to blame her for his early exit.

At one point he was so stressed he couldn’t bring himself to dance in front of a live audience with concerned show bosses recommending he got professional help.

Wallace told The Mirror’s Men In Mind podcast how his therapist jumped in a car to be at his side in his dressing room and ‘had me in floods of tears’.

Gregg Wallace ‘hated’ his time on Strictly Come Dancing and said he would have done better if he was with ‘somebody who liked me’.

The grocer-turned-presenter appeared in the 2014 series of the BBC show where he was paired with pro dancer Aliona Vilani

The 60-year-old also previously took a swipe at his dance partner and appeared to blame her for his early exit

‘But I went out and danced,’ he said.

He said the stress caused rashes to break out on the side of his face and he was ‘having a really tough time’.

Speaking to OK! magazine in 2021, Wallace said he ‘absolutely hated’ Strictly and the only time he enjoyed it was the last day on the final.

And he moaned: ‘I love dancing, but if I were paired with somebody who liked me then I would have done better.’

Kazakhstan beauty Aliona, who left the show after the 2015 series, also hinted of her dissatisfaction with their partnership after she retweeted 62 Twitter comments from fans claiming she should have been given a better partner.

Wallace admitted to being so racked with fear and anxiety ahead of his Strictly Come Dancing performance that he sought the help of a hypnotherapist.

He told The Express in 2014: ‘I was suffering from so much stage-fright and severe anxiety that, on Saturday morning, I cried out of fear and desperation. It was absolute terror that I couldn’t overcome.’

In a bid just to keep going, he met with a psychological professional, who helped him focus on positive thinking.

But the main problem for Wallace was his fear of being judged.

‘All that kept going through my head was, “I am going to look stupid.” I just couldn’t control that fear,’ he said. ‘I can empathise with MasterChef contestants now. I never knew what they were suffering. I now know it’s OK to mess up, it’s OK to be scared.’

MailOnline has contacted representatives of Strictly Come Dancing for comment.

Gregg Wallace (pictured today) has stepped away from MasterChef after 13 people including Newsnight host Kirsty Wark accused him of ‘wrong’ and inappropriate ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming

Mr Wallace was at home in Kent today as it emerged he was under investigation

Wallace (pictured with John Torode), 60, is ‘committed to fully cooperating throughout the process’, the show’s production company Banijay UK said

On Thursday Wallace stepped away from MasterChef after 13 people including Newsnight host Kirsty Wark accused him of ‘wrong’ and inappropriate ‘sexualised’ behaviour during filming.

Ms Walk claims that on two occasions Wallace told stories and jokes of a ‘sexualised nature’ in front of contestants and crew while filming Celebrity MasterChef in 2011. She said his gags and comments were ‘really, really in the wrong place’.

‘There were two occasions in particular where he used sexualised language in front of a number of people and it wasn’t as if anyone engaged with this. It was completely one-way traffic. But I think people were uncomfortable and something that I really did not expect to happen’, she said.

Today Scottish broadcaster Aasmah Mir shared a picture of herself during the 2017 Celebrity MasterChef series with the cryptic message: ‘Always keep your receipts’. It is not yet known if she has also complained.

Wallace is ‘committed to fully cooperating throughout the process’, the show’s production company Banijay UK said.

He is yet to comment today, but in October he vehemently denied that he had made inappropriate sexual comments towards women, declaring that he would never ‘flirt with’ or ‘hit on’ another woman and saying: ‘I didn’t say anything sexual.’