"We were worried": MasterChef’s Gary Mehigan’s stark admission about George Calombaris
MasterChef judge Gary Mehigan has made a stark admission about his former co-star George Calombaris’ well-being after he was sacked from his gig on Channel 10 in June.
The 52-year-old told The Daily Telegraph on Monday that he had broken down in tears over the judge shake-up, especially in light of George’s high-profile underpayment scandal.
"We were worried about his mental health - I just thought no human can go through all this and come out in one piece at the end of it,” he explained.
His exit from MasterChef was part of an even bigger slew of issues for George, who had been fined for underpaying his restaurant staff by nearly $8 million, just days before.
The 40-year-old was given a penalty of $200,000 for underpaying 515 of his staff members between 2011 and 2017 and will also have his business’ audited for the next three years.
George made headlines for this high-profile case and went on to break down in tears during an interview with ABC’s 7.30, in which he issued an apology to his employees and took full responsibility for not correctly paying his staff.
Gary assured concerned fans that his former co-host is “in a much better place now.''
“He's focused entirely on the business and leaving MasterChef is good for him at the moment,” he said.
In July, it was reported all three MasterChef judges, George, Gary and Matt Preston, had abruptly quit the show following an ongoing pay dispute.
The network’s CEO Paul Anderson said in a statement: “Despite months of negotiations, Ten has not been able to reach a commercial agreement that was satisfactory to Matt, Gary and George.
“We would like to thank Gary, George and Matt for their contribution over the past 11 years”.
Anderson confirmed in his statement there will be a twelfth season of MasterChef with new judges airing in 2020.
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