Gregg Wallace has confirmed that he's stepping back from presenting BBC series Inside The Factory after seven years to focus his time on his son with autism.
The 58-year-old admitted that despite stepping back, he has already filmed a number of episodes which are set to air in the near future, writes The Mirror.
Despite quitting the BBC show, which sees Gregg take an in depth look into how goods are made, he will continue to judge MasterChef.
Gregg spoke to Gaby Roslin on BBC Radio London and said he needs to step away from Inside The Factory to focus on young Sid, who is non-verbal in addition to his autism, and needs additional support with education.
He said that his son is a "lovely, lovely little boy" with a "wonderful mother" but admitted "it’s not easy".
He also added that he made the decision due to filming involving a lot of travelling away from his family so he can visit different factories across the country.
Gregg 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."
Gregg, who was the original presenter of the BBC's popular cooking show Saturday Kitchen, has featured on other shows such as Eat Well For Less, Turn Back Time, Harvest and Supermarket Secrets.
He shares son Sid with wife Anne-Marie Sterpini, who he married in 2016.
Away from his TV jobs, Gregg also runs a health site called ShowMe.Fit.
But he's keen to spend more time with Sid and told Gaby about some of the issues the toddler faces.
The Celebrity MasterChef judge said: "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."
The BBC said that a new presenter for the show will be announced in due course.
A new series of Inside The Factory presented by Wallace, Cherry Healey and Ruth Goodman will launch on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer in April.
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