MasterChef's Gregg Wallace in drunken brawl at hotel: TV star grapples with man who 'fondled his girl' Gregg Wallace fought the man during a five-course champagne reception at the four-star Wood Norton Hotel near Evesham, Worcestershire The man allegedly touched Wallace's girlfriend Anne-Marie Sterpini Witnesses said fellow guests had to separate the pair By Andy Dolan and Simon Cable When a boozy hotel guest began fondling Gregg Wallace's young girlfriend early yesterday, the MasterChef judge's temper rapidly boiled over. Drinkers were forced to separate the men as they began brawling in the bar following a five-course champagne reception. Wallace, 48, was said to have ended up grappling on the floor with the unidentified man in full view of shocked guests following a public question-and-answer session at the hotel on Saturday night. Gregg Wallace fought the man after he allegedly touched the MasterChef judge's girlfriend Anne-Marie Sterpini (pictured) The fight happened during a five-course champagne reception at the Wood Norton Hotel (pictured) About 80 diners had paid up to £225 to attend the event, where they enjoyed a five-course meal with recommended wine accompanying each course. A witness told the Daily Mail how the rumpus erupted at the four-star Wood Norton Hotel near Evesham, Worcestershire, after the guest allegedly touched Wallace's girlfriend Anne-Marie Sterpini, 27. He said most of those present were "rolling drunk," and added: "One minute Gregg was at the bar and the next minute he was rolling around on the floor fighting with this other man. Glasses went everywhere. I don't know what triggered it. I think Gregg had been talking at the bar with the man at first. Then he seemed to whisper something in the other man's ear before it all kicked off. He said other guests had to step in to separate the pair. Another source added: "The vast majority of those present were very drunk. I'm pretty sure Gregg had enjoyed a few drinks too. In fact, his girlfriend was one of the only people there who seemed sober. Gregg took exception to this man who was supposed to have been touching his girlfriend up. A table was knocked over as they grappled. A third guest said that Wallace had been drinking heavily when he launched himself at the man. Gregg Wallace (left) has built a successful career on MasterChef with his friend and chef John Torode (right) The guest said that onlookers struggled to pull the pair apart and that the man, who it is understood works for a local magazine, appeared to suffer a head cut and split lip and had fallen on top of a glass, with shards having to be picked out of his back following the fracas. Guests were trying to separate them, but they were both going for it. Gregg then stormed off to his room, but the other chap was left there with people having to clean him up. Gregg came back down and was very, very apologetic to the guy. People were left in shock. A teenager called Hannah who lives nearby tweeted soon afterwards: "The geezer from master chef just had a fight with a bloke and mum had to clean all the blood up." A source close to the MasterChef host said that after both men had calmed down, they apologised to one another and "shared a whisky in the bar together." Three-times-married Wallace is understood to have spent the night at the hotel and stayed for lunch. His £85,000 Jaguar XKR was seen parked outside. At one point he stepped out into the hotel garden to make a brief phone call. There was no sign of cuts or bruising to his face. His spokesman said: "I can confirm Gregg was involved in a disagreement at an event last night. The situation was swiftly resolved. Wallace grew up in the tough south London district of Peckham. As a youth he was arrested, convicted and fined for threatening behaviour after being caught up in a violent clash between police and Millwall's notorious Bushwacker football gang. He has also admitted being arrested and sacked for stealing from the warehouse where he worked as a young man. Needy, insecure and always ready with his fists, writes Alison Boshoff Gregg Wallace readily admits that he spends half of his life wanting to crack someone over the head with a rolling pin. The TV chef has seen a therapist in an attempt to tackle his terrible temper, and was told that he has an inferiority complex and an "addiction to security" - although how this fits with his three broken marriages isn't quite clear. "My main problems are low self-esteem, the fact I'm a workaholic and a completely illogical fear of being poor," he says. Despite his successful fruit and vegetable business and flourish TV career, Wallace has a 'completely illogical fear of being poor' Indeed he is such a liability that he is accompanied at almost all public events by his PR manager, who tries to stop him getting into fights with members of the public who dare to approach him and ask for a photo. In March he told Radio Times that he wanted to lash out at members of the public. "I'm a south-east London blue-collar boy, so sometimes people are rude, thinking I won't react because I'm on television," he said. My natural inclination is to clump them - and I have. If that was known I'd be arrested and it would end my career. He added: "OK, I haven't done it. But here's a plea: could viewers stop sending me pictures of their dinner on Twitter - I get about 30 a day. And also photographs of their friends who are bald and have glasses, telling me they're my double. They're not my double - just a bald bloke with glasses. But why is his temper on such a hair-trigger? He has a hugely successful television career, two restaurants and numerous best selling cookery books, plus a new and very young girlfriend, recruited - as is his wont - via Twitter. It seems, though, that despite his millions, Wallace has been left emotionally scarred by his upbringing. Wallace set up his own business and supplied restaurants such as John Torode's Quaglinos before the pair presented the revamped MasterChef He claimed in his autobiography Life On A Plate that he was sexually abused by his babysitter's husband when he was eight. When he was 15 his mother left the man he thought was his father and ran off with her boyfriend - who then turned out to be his real dad. But his biological father, Gerry, didn't appear to like him any more than his "dad" did. Greg claimed he felt unloved and unwanted. Expelled from school after a run-in with a teacher, he left home, living in an empty flat owned by his father. He gradually worked his way up, setting up his own fruit and vegetable business in 1989 and supplying restaurants including Quaglinos, where young Aussie chef John Torode was working. Many years later, they were put together by a TV production company, Shine, who were looking for new names to relaunch MasterChef in 2005. By then Wallace had chalked up two marriages. His first wife Christine, left him after just six weeks. Wallace has admitted that he struggles with his temper His second, pastry chef Denise, lasted longer and they had children Tom and Libby, now both teenagers. But he admitted to a string of affairs and they split up in 2004. She told a Sunday newspaper that when he finally left the marital home, he took only his collection of porn with him. "Gregg's idea of being faithful was spending the night with a £500 hooker while I stayed at home and looked after our kids," she said. Basically he can't keep it in his pants. Wallace met his future third wife Heidi after she sent him a question about celery on Twitter in 2009. She was a teacher and only 27. He was 44. Within four months they were living together and they married in 2011, in a full dazzle of media attention including a big-money deal with a celebrity magazine. They split after a year. He said they both "struggled with proper intimacy." Next came a dalliance with 26-year-old glamour model Cara Franco, whom he had met at an exhibition, but they split up after he told an interviewer that he was still in love with Heidi. Having once again turned to Twitter to find a new young girlfriend, he soon announced that he was dating Anne-Marie Sterpini, 27. They holidayed in Spain earlier this summer - when he tweeted proudly about his three-stone weight loss - and are said to be thinking of setting up home together in London. He hasn't ruled out the idea of marrying for a fourth time. "The truth is I am just looking for love," he said. I want someone I can share my life with 100 per cent. If I did I'd be happy to spend each night indoors with the slippers on. Whoever she is, she'll need to be able to cope with some distinctly high-maintenance tendencies from the combustible Cockney.