Amanda Abbington spoke to Newsnight’s Victoria Derbyshire about her allegations made against Strictly Come Dancing partner Giovanni Pernice
Amanda Abbington has made claims about Giovanni Pernice’s behaviour during their lone Strictly rehearsals in her first interview since a report was published into her complaints to the BBC.
The actress, 50, made a shocking claim in a new bombshell BBC interview. She opened up on her torment on Newsnight and said she hadn’t responded well to Giovanni’s way of teaching. After Victoria Derbyshire asked the Sherlock star about the behaviour, Amanda detailed a complaint with a shaky voice: “Um, yeah. It was one of the allegations that was upheld. There were two allegations,” she said before apologising for checking her 30-page probe report. “There were two allegations of inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature. They were upheld and one of them was physical and one was verbal.”
A visibly shaken Amanda then said the other allegation was verbal before saying: “And they weren’t isolated one-off incidents. They were over a period of seven weeks.” The latest claims come after six of her 17 allegations against the Italian dancer were upheld following an internal investigation at the BBC.
Victoria read out Giovanni’s past statement at one point, adding that the Italian dancer told Newnight: “We are unable to comment any further and the BBC has asked both parties to respect confidentially.” Giovanni has previously strongly denied all of Amanda’s past allegations.
Amanda Abbington opened up on Newsnight (
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“It’s been one of the worst years of my life,” Abbington told BBC Newsnight. “I’ve been through a lot, women go through a lot, but it has been a very unpleasant, turbulent, relentless time in my life. I’ve had to deal with a myriad of horrible things.”
The 50-year-old said that, in the last eight months, the number of threats she has received had “gone into the hundreds”.
In August, the Metropolitan Police confirmed they were investigating after they were called to the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park to an alleged death threat sent to Abbington, who was starring in When It Happens To You.
“I had a credible death threat sent to my place of work, a theatre that I was working at, which was credible and the police had to be called,” Abbington said.
“I had a bomb threat sent to my place of work, threatening to blow the building up because I was pursuing this. I’ve had death threats sent to me, my family.
“I’ve had rape threats sent to my 15-year-old daughter, saying ‘I’m just laughing at the moment thinking about you having to watch your daughter get raped for what you’ve done to Giovanni Pernice’.
“They were every day I’d be getting those and I have screenshots that have been handed over to the Met Police.”
Amanda said the threats had “started up again” since the publication of the BBC review on Monday. She said she has been receiving threats including “I hope you die of cancer” and “I knew you’d get proven wrong you lying c***”.
Despite the threats, Abbington said “I’ve got no regrets” about lodging complaints against Pernice. “The death threats and the rape threats and the abuse I get are horrible and soul-destroying and heart-breaking,” she said.
“But I do get women coming up to me in the street saying ‘You’re paving the way for my daughter to work in a safe environment and not feel threatened or in any way feel that they can’t speak out’.”
During the interview, Abbington also claimed she was not the only person to have complained about working with Pernice on the BBC flagship show.
She said she invited the former Strictly contestants to her home because “we wanted to make sure we weren’t on our own thinking this had just happened to us”.
Amanda said when they first they “all burst into tears”.
Amanda Abbington spoke of terrifying death threats (
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BBC)
In a post shared on Instagram on Monday, after the results of the BBC investigation were made public, Giovanni said: “It’s over, it’s finished, six months, seven months of all of this.Seven months of reading things every day in the newspaper and not being able to respond because I wanted to keep the confidentiality and privacy of the review, (it) was a difficult time.
“It was difficult because, you know, reading stuff that (was) untrue, wasn’t the nicest time of my life lets be honest. But today I’m happy because, at the beginning there were very, very serious allegations thrown out at me but today, none of the serious allegations have been upheld.
“All the threatening, abusive, harassment behaviour allegations have not been upheld. Today is a day when we can all reflect because, I appreciate that dancing is a very difficult thing to do. It’s a sport, it’s something that is difficult in every possible way and sometimes you get frustrated, as a teacher, as a dancer, as a performer. But the only reason why you get frustrated is because you care about what you do.
“You know as a professional, as a teacher, I want to get the best out of my partner, and sometimes I do get frustrated. I think everybody around the world does the same thing, it’s called being professional and I love doing that. You know even now with Bianca (Guaccero, his partner on the Italian equivalent of Strictly, Ballando con le Stelle), I get frustrated, I think it’s a normal thing, but then you get out the best and the results come forward.”
The probe uncovered moments of “inappropriate behaviour of sexual banter in the workplace” including an incident where Pernice made an improper signal clear violation of the BBC codes. In reflecting on the BBCs proclamation, Amanda emphasised that coming forward “was not an easy thing to do”.
Amanda made a number of new claims during her bombshell interview (
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BBC)
Meanwhile, the BBC asserted: “Strictly Come Dancing is a family show and we rightly expect very high standards. While competition can be tough, rigorous and demanding, we want the show to ultimately be a joyous and transformative experience. It is a great shame if this hasn’t been the case for everyone who has appeared on the show. We have assessed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all. We want to apologise to Amanda Abbington and to thank her for coming forward and taking part. We know this would not have been an easy thing to do.”
A source reportedly close to Amanda said earlier this week: “Amanda is delighted and relieved, and feels her decision to speak out and complain has been rewarded. She hopes other celebrities might come forward now, safe in the knowledge they, too, will be listened to.”
The source told The Sun that Amanda “has been through hell” and “lost work” as a result of going public with her claims and “is “considering taking further” action against the BBC for damages and loss of earnings. The source said that Amanda “suffered enormously” and was diagnosed with PTSD, adding that she feels the BBC “breached its duty of care guidelines by not protecting her sooner”.
The source said it’s hard to “put a figure on how much she could expect” if things went her way, but it was speculated that it could be up to £300,000. The source described the prospect as the the BBC’s “worst nightmare” after a “costly investigation” and potential reputational damange for Strictly.
A representative for Giovanni said: “We are pleased this six-month review has not found any evidence of threatening or abusive behaviour. Giovanni is relieved that the overwhelming majority of allegations put to the BBC have not been upheld and looks forward to continuing his work on Dancing With The Stars in Italy this season.”
Giovanni also shared a statement on his Instagram page saying he was pleased the situation and probe was over. The upload was liked by his former Strictly co-star, Lauren Oakley.
