Paddy McGuinness broke his silence as he replaced Gregg Wallace on BBC show Inside The Factory.
The TV presenter, 51, was announced as Gregg’s replacement amid the chef’s sexual misconduct scandal.
The MasterChef judge, 60, announced last week that he was stepping back from the show after almost two decades while an investigation into his alleged misconduct is carried out. Grace Dent replaces Gregg on the show in the meantime.
He also quit BBC Two’s Inside The Factory after complaints were made about alleged ‘inappropriate banter’ with female staff members about their weight.
Speaking about his thoughts on wearing a hairnet, he joked: ‘Actually, there’s not much hair for me to cover. You know, 20 years ago, when I had a nice thick head of hair, that would have been something!
Paddy also shared his nerves about working with co-host Cherry Healey for the first time, in an interview with The sun.
Paddy McGuinness, 51, broke his silence as he replaced Gregg Wallace on BBC show Inside The Factory (pictured with co-star Cherry Healey)
The TV host was announced as Gregg’s replacement amid the chef’s sexual misconduct scandal
He said: ‘That’s always the difficult part, you hope you’re doing well. But I’m telling you now, Cherry and I laugh so much.
“As soon as I met her, we had a big conversation and just kind of interacted like that.
‘This is a testament to her – when I did my Children in Need challenge she came to Kendal to surprise me – she even brought up a lasagna she had made!’
“I drove in in this big truck for the first shot. I thought, “I got my heavy goods license for Top Gear, now I’m driving to where I worked about 30 years ago, where I used to present a show for the BBC.”
“When I was that 16-year-old boy walking to work wearing butties that my mother had made for me, thinking all these years later that all these amazing things would happen in my life.
‘It was one of those moments where I thought, “B****yh***, life huh? It has its twists and turns.”
Gregg quit the show last year following the allegations regarding female factory workers at Nestle, where he was filming at the time.
Sources said he had been ‘rude to staff’ and spoke to them in a ‘derogatory manner, especially women’. But he later denied the allegations, saying the claims were “inaccurate.”
The MasterChef judge, 60, announced last week that he was stepping back from the show after almost two decades while an investigation into his alleged misconduct is carried out.
He also quit BBC Two’s Inside The Factory after complaints were made about alleged ‘inappropriate banter’ with female staff members about their weight
The show visits factories across the country to see how our favorite products are made.
In the upcoming ninth season, Paddy and Cherry visit a host of new factories producing some of our favorite dishes on a massive scale, from sliced bread to flapjacks and sausage rolls.
In a Christmas special, airing on Sunday, December 22, the duo visit a chocolate factory in Belgium to learn how they produce as many as four million individual chocolate shells every day.
Gregg is facing allegations of inappropriate behavior on five shows over a 17-year period.
Staffers and former contestants, including celebrities such as Emma Kennedy and Kirsty Wark, claim the former greengrocer made them feel uncomfortable on set.
Gregg has been accused of a slew of inappropriate behavior, including walking around on set naked except for a sock on his penis, changing clothes in front of female staff and even groping crew members.
Other allegations include sharing intimate details about his sex life, becoming fixated on a female staff member who was dating women and asking her about “logistics” and flirting with younger women on set.
Gregg has stepped down from MasterChef while an external investigation is carried out by production company Banijay UK.
In the upcoming ninth season, Paddy and Cherry visit a host of new factories producing some of our favorite foods on a massive scale.
Gregg quit the show last year following the allegations regarding female factory workers at Nestle, where he was filming at the time
Best known for presenting MasterChef with co-host John Torode (left), Gregg is now facing a barrage of allegations over ‘inappropriate behaviour’ on set
It was reported by The times that during a ‘friendly’ conversation he allegedly insulted certain female staff at Nestlé UK’s York factory with comments about their weight.
The comments were non-sexual but were deemed ‘inappropriate’ and a complaint was made to Voltage TV, the production company responsible for developing the show.
‘He was rude to staff and continued to speak in a derogatory manner, especially to women.
“He was interviewed and was shocked that he had committed such an offence,” the source said.
Voltage TV asked Wallace to moderate his language and filming continued, but his behavior apparently did not change.
The staff reportedly informed management that they did not want the show to return with Wallace remaining at the helm.
A source said: ‘He felt like he was just trying to be friendly but couldn’t remember what the right thing to say was and decided to leave.’
A Nestlé insider said this The times: ‘He jokes, but he comes from a completely different world than our workers.’
The Christmas special for Inside The Factory will air on BBC One on December 22 from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.