GREGG WALLACE has found love and happiness with Italian fiancée Anna Sterpini.
Now the MasterChef judge has told The Sunday Post that his passion for Italy is such that he could up sticks and move there.
Gregg, 51, and Anna are set to wed next month and he’s taken the whole of August off around their honeymoon in her native country.
That’s set to be the first of many regular long stays that could even become permanent.
“I think my happiest possible time would be wandering around Italy wondering where to have lunch,” said Gregg.
“I’m completely and utterly in love with the place and I’m going to try and take every August off and live in a different region.
“I’ve already rented a villa for 2017 and I’d consider moving there, I really would.
“But I’m a big rugby fan and I’d miss live games – and British beer, of course.”
Gregg admits he’s besotted with Anna, whom he credits with giving him focus and direction.
When he walks down the aisle in August he’ll have fellow MasterChef judge John Torode as his best man. And Gregg insists their unshakeable bond is a large part of the success of the cookery reality show.
“If you’re going to work that closely with someone you’ve got to get on.
“We’ve got a hell of a lot of respect for each other. We’ve been filming MasterChef together for 12 years and we knew each other for 10 years before that.
“We’ve shared each other’s highs and lows and there’s no aspect of my life that John isn’t aware of.” Celebrity MasterChef reaches its climax this week with a tense series of challenges for the remaining stars.
And Gregg says that neither he nor John ever have any idea who’ll triumph.
“John jokes that in week one we think we’ve found the winner – and in week two we’ve chucked them out,” he laughs.
“It’s not the best cook when the series starts, it’s the one that learns most quickly. And to be fair there’s always a comedy value in the Celebrity version as some just can’t cook.
“The show is just a phenomenon. I was talking to the guy behind it all just last week and 52 different countries around the world have their own MasterChef series, which is amazing.” Eat Well For
Less is also currently screening and this week there will be a hat-trick of Gregg’s programmes, with Inside The Factory starting, too.
It all makes him one of TV’s best-known faces, with which comes recognition everywhere he goes.
“Sometimes it bothers me,” he adds. “There are times you want to be on your own and it is impossible.
“People want to talk or get photos constantly. That’s OK nearly all of the time, but sometimes it’s not.
“It can be the 50th time that day and it can get wearing.”
Celebrity MasterChef: The Final Week, Thursday at 8pm and Friday at 8.30pm on BBC One.
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