Gino D’Acampo #
Introduction #
Gino D’Acampo is an Italian celebrity chef and television presenter who built his career in the United Kingdom, chiefly as a fixture on ITV. In February 2025, an ITV News investigation reported allegations of inappropriate and intimidating behaviour from more than 40 people who had worked with him over a period spanning more than 12 years, with experiences described variously as “unacceptable”, “distressing” and “horrendous”. Within days, ITV pulled his programmes from its schedule and confirmed it had no plans to work with him again. D’Acampo has firmly and emphatically denied all of the allegations, saying he does “not recognise the version of events being put to me”. No charges arising from the allegations were reported in the coverage, and the accounts remain attributed claims that he disputes.
Background Information #
Born Gennaro D’Acampo in Torre del Greco, Italy, on 17 July 1976, he moved to London in 1995, aged 19, to work at The Orchard Restaurant in Hampstead. He came to widespread public attention by winning the ninth series of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! in 2009, afterwards becoming a regular chef on This Morning and presenting food and travel series including There’s No Taste Like Home and seven series of Gino’s Italian Escape. From 2018 he co-starred with Gordon Ramsay and Fred Sirieix in Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip, which became one of ITV’s most popular factual entertainment shows, running until 2023. He also hosted the revival of Family Fortunes between 2020 and 2023 and wrote numerous cookbooks. He married Jessica Stellina Morrison in 2002 and has three children; the couple met while he was working at Sylvester Stallone’s Mambo King restaurant in Marbella, and moved to the UK together in 1995.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #
ITV News first revealed numerous allegations of inappropriate and intimidating behaviour by D’Acampo in early February 2025. More than 40 people detailed experiences described as “unacceptable”, “distressing” and “horrendous” while working with him over more than 12 years, with multiple individuals accusing him of using sexualised and aggressive language on television sets. One production crew member who worked with him on a programme filmed in Italy in 2021 told ITV News he threw each unwanted piece of kitchen equipment to the ground in front of the crew and whispered “Run, you better run” when she was not moving fast enough between sets — “I was terrified the whole way through that job, purely terrified,” she said, describing what she called “bullying and abuse of power”. Others described his behaviour as “intimidating” and said his “cheeky chappy” persona allowed him to act inappropriately without consequence. An email seen by ITV News showed concerns were formally raised with production company Objective Media Group in 2018, detailing “unacceptable and distressing behaviour” including sexualised comments, such as describing a woman as a “bitter middle aged woman who needed to get laid”.
Public Reaction and Consequences #
ITV acted within days of the initial report. Episodes of Gino’s Italy: Secrets of the South and Family Fortunes, both hosted by D’Acampo, were removed from the weekend schedule — the travel series replaced by Abbey Clancy: Celebrity Homes — along with unaired Family Fortunes episodes filmed in 2023. The network confirmed it had no plans to work with him again and said: “We can categorically confirm that this kind of behaviour is not tolerated by ITV.” Production companies MultiStory Media, Objective Media Group, Studio Ramsay and Betty TV issued statements saying they take workplace conduct seriously; Studio Ramsay said it had not worked with him since 2022, while Betty TV reportedly conducted an internal investigation into his behaviour in 2022, which his legal team said he was never informed of. One accuser publicly expressed shock at his denial. On 10 February 2025, ITV News reported that complaints about his behaviour had been made at least six times between 2018 and 2023, including bullying said to have taken place on the set of a programme broadcast on ITV, and that ITV had spoken to him directly about his off-screen behaviour on at least one occasion. An ITV spokesperson said most of the complaints “were not reported to ITV at the time”, but that where issues had been raised, action had been taken.
Current Status #
D’Acampo firmly denies all of the allegations. “I have never been made aware of these matters previously and the allegations are firmly denied,” he said in a statement to ITV News, calling them “deeply upsetting” and insisting such behaviour is “simply not in my nature”. He added that he had been “repeatedly supported by executives at the highest level” and commissioned on prime-time programmes during the period in which the alleged conduct is said to have occurred, noting he had “worked with well over 1,500 people on around 80 productions” in his career. ITV has said it has no plans to work with him again; the network pulled his shows rather than formally announcing an end to his contract. Wikipedia’s entry subsequently recorded that he resumed television projects later in 2025, including the cookery competition pilot Spaghetti Wars and a travel series, An Italian in Malta. No criminal proceedings arising from the allegations were reported in these sources.
Impact on Their Career/Life #
The investigation severed, at least for a time, the relationship with ITV that had defined D’Acampo’s British career: a This Morning regular, a King of the Jungle winner and the host of one of ITV’s most popular factual entertainment shows saw his programmes pulled from the schedule within days, with the network ruling out future work. The case also fed a wider industry reckoning — drawn alongside the allegations surrounding MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace — with Dame Helena Kennedy, chair of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority, telling ITV News: “We really have to get a grip of this to make sure creative industries are working to the high, professional standards we should expect everywhere.” Not every account was negative; anonymous former colleagues described him as “passionate but professional” and recalled “some utterly magical moments” working with him. But for D’Acampo personally, the allegations attached to his name a permanent public record of claims from dozens of production staff — accounts he continues to deny and says were never previously raised with him.