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Former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace is set to leave Britain for Italy after being forced to sell his "enormous" £1million home. The TV chef, 61, was dropped from the hugely popular BBC programme last year after facing accusations of "inappropriate behaviour", including allegations of touching an assistant's bum on the show. A subsequent investigation into 83 historical allegations of workplace misconduct found 45 of them against him upheld. Reports emerged in October that Gregg was seeking up to £10,000 in damages from the BBC and one of its subsidiaries following his departure from MasterChef. The TV presenter claimed they had allegedly caused him "distress and harassment" by failing to disclose his personal data to him.

Now, however, the presenter has confirmed his "new chapter", informing his Instagram followers that he will be departing the UK for Italy before the end of the month. Gregg also revealed he plans to homeschool his autistic son there. Gregg's wife, Anne-Marie Sterpini, whom he met on Twitter, is Italian. The couple wed in 2016, four years after Gregg's divorce from his third wife Heidi Brown, reports the Mirror.

In his social media video, Gregg said: "I've always loved Italy and we plan to move around and rent in different places which is quite an adventure and with the help of my autism specialist mates, I am going to homeschool Sid as well. It is a new chapter for us. It is a life that should be full of travel and adventure and I'm very very much looking forward too it." However, the entrepreneur, who also fronted Saturday Kitchen, is additionally planning to purchase a "much more modest" house in Yorkshire - near to where his daughter resides. He is expected to split his time between Italy and Yorkshire.

This follows Gregg's revelation earlier this month that he is putting his £1million Kent home on the market after being left "unable to live the life he used to have". The chef has been without a television role since the BBC dropped him from MasterChef, a position he had held for nearly two decades.

The former BBC star intends to sell the "enormous" property, which sits on five acres of land, complete with stables and a pond. Gregg, who purchased the home in 2017, said the move was driven not only by a desire for a quieter pace of life, but also to safeguard the financial future of wife Anne-Marie, 38, and son Sid, six.

He said: "I can't have the life I used to have but whether you chose to believe it or not, I really wanted to come out of that anyway, but obviously not in the dramatic way that I did.

"I want to ease off a little bit, I want to relax a little bit. but that also comes with wanting financial security for me and my family because I've got a wife that is much younger than me and a special needs little boy, Sid."