Strictly Come Dancing’s Giovanni Pernice has spoken out about his rehearsal room relationship with Amanda Abbington in detail for the first time.
Abbington, 50, pulled out of the BBC One show last year and later filed complaints of verbal bullying and harassment against her professional dance partner Pernice, and revealed she had endured PTSD as a result of the experience. Pernice has denied any wrongdoing while the BBC’s months-long investigation into his conduct acknowledged Abbington’s complaints of verbal bullying and harassment but concluded that the Italian dancer was not physically aggressive to his celebrity partner.
Since the probe, Abbington has said she is considering further action about specific allegations such as the claim that Pernice made a shocking sexual gesture towards her.
Speaking about his relationship with the Sherlock actor in an interview for the first time since the probe, Pernice told MailOnline that he and Abbington would share jokes together and “she would say very bad things, like the c-word”.
Pernice, 34, recalled that production staff noticed that he and Abbington would exchange rude words, but Abbington insisted it was a joke.
“In actual fact, the production staff came to us and said, ‘We have noticed that you call each other that word, is it ok?’” Pernice said.
“And she was like, ‘Oh yeah it’s fine, I call him that! It’s absolutely fine, I started it’, those were her words. And I was like, ‘Yes guys, we are fine, we are joking like this.’”
“She’s the person who would start the joke. She would tell a dark joke. That was the banter we had from the beginning, very rude banter.”
Pernice, who joined the BBC dancing competition in 2015, was axed from the show after the allegations came to light.
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After launching the findings of its investigation, the BBC issued an apology to Abbington and thanked her for coming forward. It upheld complaints such as Pernice getting frustrated with the actor while teaching her the routines.
Pernice has now said that other couples would get frustrated, too, and that it “wasn’t just us”.
He claimed that by week two of working with the actor, he had been informed by another contestant that Abbington had been unhappy with their training.
Pernice claims he got a different impression. “I’ve still got [Amanda’s] messages. ‘They say: ‘Thank you so much for your patience today, you’re an incredible teacher,’ so I just thought it was all great,” he said.
“Then one of the celebrities came to me and said, ‘You didn’t have a great week, did you?”
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ But Amanda had told them she had a horrible week – and that was week one, before the show had even started.”
Pernice has insisted to MailOnline that he had asked for rehearsals to be monitored and recorded to “protect” himself, but Abbington claimed months ago that it was her who asked for the rehearsals to be filmed.
The dancer said he was “gutted” when Abbington pulled out of the show, initially citing health reasons after she found two lumps in her breast and could not concentrate on rehearsals. The lumps were found to be benign.
Abbington told The Sun earlier this month that she had said to Pernice: “I’m going to go to the hospital now because I found two lumps in my breast this morning,” to which he allegedly replied: “Let me know how it goes.” She said that the moment gave her an excuse to leave Strictly.
However, Pernice now says that he had offered to call his doctor for her.
Reflecting on the last time they communicated, the dancer said: “Amanda told me that she couldn’t concentrate because while she was having a shower she had found two lumps.”
“I said, ‘Please tell me it’s nothing serious,’ and the first thing I did was call my doctor and tried to organise for her to have a scan right away.”
“So the last message between us was me saying to her: ‘Can I help you? Please let me help you, forget about the dance, forget about the show, this is more important than anything.’ This was the last time I heard from Amanda.” The Independent has contacted Abbington’s representatives for comment.
After the results of the investigation were released, a spokesperson for Pernice said the dancer was “pleased” that the report “has not found any evidence of threatening or abusive behaviour” by him, noting that he “is relieved that the overwhelming majority of allegations out to the BBC have not been upheld”.
Abbington, meanwhile, said that the BBC’s apology “meant a lot” to her, describing it as “a vindication of my complaint” and “for the other people who have contacted me since I made my complaint to express concerns about their own experiences”.
“I hope those who have felt unable to speak out now will be more confident that they will be listened to and believed,” she added.