Laura Whitmore says she was “gaslit” when she first raised complaints about the behaviour of Strictly Come Dancing pro Giovanni Pernice.
Pernice was dropped from the popular BBC dancing contest afterSherlock star Amanda Abbington raised concerns about how she was treated by the Italian dancer during rehearsals. He has denied all allegations against him.
The show has since been embroiled in scandal, with Graziano Di Prima axed over allegations about his treatment of former Love Island star Zara McDermott, and other celebrities have joined the discussion too as the BBC investigation into the show remains underway.
Whitmore first appeared on the show in 2016, finishing in sixth place.
“The stuff I’m not going to talk to you about now, because it’s under review, that’s all coming out now, the stuff I tried to speak about eight years ago,” she told the Irish Post.
Asked if she felt she wasn’t listened to when she first aired her concerns, she clarified, “Or [I was] gaslit to make it seem normalised.”
She added: “It’s a shame that it has to come out in such a victim-shaming way, which it always does. And being the first person to speak up about anything is always hard.”
It comes days after the TV presenter wrote a lengthy statement on her Instagram, to clarify “misinformation in the press” as she confirmed she had “initially raised concerns back in 2016”.
“I thought my experience was specific to me but I’ve since learned I was wrong.
“I am not looking for anything, just an acceptance that what happened to me in the rehearsal rooms during my time on BBC Strictly was wrong and that it won’t happen to anyone else again,” she wrote.
“Because I have not made an official complaint, and am providing evidence of my experience to support the investigation, not all the communication will be passed on to all parties involved.
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“The aim of this is to show a pattern of behaviour that I believe needs to stop. My evidence is to support other people’s experience. It’s a shame it takes this for someone to be heard.”
Whitmore revealed she had been asked to speak to the BBC along with six others, whose names she kept anonymous, “about inappropriate behaviour they experienced similar to mine with the same individual”.
Her concerns first became public in 2018, when she said she had felt “uncomfortable” with Pernice.
“I’m still not ready to talk in depth about my experience on the show,” she said at the time.
“I was placed with a dance partner I was extremely uncomfortable with – and in the end I felt broken. I cried every day. And I really was broken, both mentally and physically, by the end.”
Abbington has revealed she has faced death and rape threats since coming out, and admitted that she fears taking public transport as a result.
“When I’m on the train and things, I do sometimes feel exposed and vulnerable, I do, because of the nature of the threats I was getting,” she said on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour.
“You do feel like you’re public enemy number one for saying, ‘I do not feel entirely happy with this.’”