Crushed Penny Lancaster eliminated from Celebrity MasterChef after ‘serious’ mistake sparks tension with Gregg Wallace

Penny Lancaster was booted out of the Celebrity MasterChef kitchen last night after concerning judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode with her timekeeping. 

The former Loose Women panelist, 50, was up agasint reality star Megan McKenna and TV presenter Melanie Sykes for a spot in the semi-final, but ran well over time when serving up her butternut squash ravioli.

Even after receiving high praise from guest judges and Celebrity MasterChef all stars 2011 winner Phil Vickery, 2008 finalist Andi Peters and 2009 Christmas champion Craig Revel-Horwood, Penny was sent packing.

As chaos ensued in the kitchen, Gregg told Penny: ‘Mate, we can’t be 10 minutes late,’ calling her delay ‘serious’. 

‘Well, we’re going to have to be otherwise I won’t have a dish,’ she hit back, which was the final straw. 

After the drama was done, the model admitted: ‘Everything piled on top of me. I just hope the wait was worth it.’ 

Penny was in tears as she left Celebrity MasterChef (Picture: BBC)

Penny ran 15 minutes late with her butternut squash ravioli (Picture: BBC)

Before her exit, Penny said she would be ‘quite deflated’ to leave the competition because she was ‘loving this’. 

But as John and Gregg confirmed her time was done, with tears in her eyes, she said: ‘It would’ve been incredible to get through to the semi finals but it wasn’t meant to be.’

‘Absolutely no regrets whatsoever,’ she continued. ‘I’ve always loved to eat food, never loved to cook – and now I love both.’

Gregg was not happy (Picture: BBC)

Melanie was in pieces as she made it through to the semi-finals (Picture: BBC)

Megan and Melanie were both in pieces as they stormed into the semi-finals. 

‘I’ve been watching this show for years,’ grinned Megan. 

‘I never thought in my entire life I would be saying I’m in the semi-final of MasterChef.’

Celebrity MasterChef continues Monday at 9pm on BBC One. 

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