GREGG Wallace has announced he is stepping down from his role on a BBC series after seven years to focus on his son.

The Masterchef judge, 58, is quitting his job as presenter of Inside The Factory to care for his three-year-old, who has autism.

A number of episodes have already been filmed and will air in the near future with Gregg as the host.

Mr Wallace revealed he will continue in his role as a judge on Masterchef despite the move.

Sidmouth Herald:

Speaking to Gaby Roslin on BBC Radio London, he said: “So I’ve made a decision that I’m actually not going to do Inside The Factory any more.

"It’s a good time to stop doing it because there’s actually 12 episodes in the can… so I wouldn’t have been filming for a while anyway, so it just seemed like a good idea to stop it."

The move will allow him to focus his attention on son, Sid, who is non-verbal and needs additional support with education.

Gregg described his son as a “lovely, lovely little boy”.

The BBC confirmed a new presenter will be announced for Inside The Factory in the future, with Jack Bootle, the BBC’s head of specialist factual, saying Gregg helped bring “humour, intelligence and genuine curiosity to one of the BBC’s biggest returning factual brands.”

He added: “I’d like to thank him for all his hard work and commitment to the programme.”

Wallace – who was the original presenter of long-running BBC cooking show Saturday Kitchen and has featured on Eat Well For Less, Turn Back Time, Harvest and Supermarket Secrets – shares Sid with Anne-Marie Sterpini, who he married in 2016.

He also said he is approaching 60 and is running a health site called ShowMe.Fit as well as focusing on his family.

The judge of Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals added: “Imagine a child that you can’t threaten or bribe and that’s basically what you’ve got.

“You’ve got a little boy who’s cuddly and happy and naughty, like any little boy would be, but he can’t speak, he can’t talk to you, so he gets frustrated because he finds it difficult to tell you what exactly it is he needs.

“Right now, we need to find education for him and I can’t just leave that to Anna – that’s a big, big decision.

“I mean, all parents worry about the schools that children will go to. Ours is even more highlighted because of poor little Sid’s issues.”