Giovanni Pernice has publicly responded to the statements and claims made by Laura Whitmore following the recent BBC investigation into his conduct.
The investigation, which upheld six out of 17 complaints lodged against him by Amanda Abbington, was sparked after the Sherlock actress alleged “threatening and abusive” behaviour by the Italian dancer on last year’s series. He’s always denied the allegations.
The BBC said sorry to Abbington following its investigation in an apology the actress said was “vindication”, but Pernice similarly welcomed the result with “relief” after claims he was “threatening and abusive were found not to be true”, he said.
As part of the Beeb’s investigation, Pernice’s former dance partners from the show spoke to the corporation, with Whitmore being one of them.
When scrutiny of the investigation was at its peak in July, Whitmore took to Instagram with a statement that began: “I was trying not to comment on recent press speculation until the BBC review is complete but feel there is a lot of misinformation in the press and I want to help and show support by setting the record straight.”
The former Love Island host claimed she had been asked to speak to the BBC with six other unnamed stars regarding “inappropriate behaviour they experienced similar to mine with the same individual”.
Giovanni Pernice returned to UK TV screens on ITV’s Lorraine on Tuesday
ITV
Concluding the statement, Whitmore added: “I thought my experience was specific to me but I’ve since learned I was wrong. The aim of this is to show a pattern of behaviour that I believe needs to stop.”
This statement was put to Pernice in his first televised UK interview about the saga on Tuesday during an episode of Lorraine on ITV.
When asked by host Christine Lampard how he “felt” about former stars banding together with similar complaints, Pernice stood firm: “I can only answer to you the things that I know and things that have been presented to me.
“In this case, I have only ever one official complaint and that is from Amanda. All the other ones I genuinely can’t answer because I don’t know where to start from.”
Laura Whitmore posted a cryptic post amid Giovanni Pernice’s return to screens to address the Strictly saga
INSTAGRAM/LAURA WHITMORE
Lampard turned her attention to Whitmore, specifically, reading aloud the aforementioned statement from her Instagram page earlier this year.
Pernice hit back: “That’s one important thing to go straight to because all my nine partners have been asked to talk to the BBC. So it’s not just six.
“When it says numbers or all of his partners went to talk to the BBC, it’s not to complain. What the BBC did is they brought everybody who danced with me to have a bigger vision of what my teaching style would be. So everybody went to talk with them.”
Soon after Pernice addressed Whitmore’s complaints on television, the TV presenter took to Instagram where she reposted a rather cryptic post.
Amanda Abbington accused Giovanni Pernice of being “abusive” during their time on Strictly. He denied her allegations
BBC
Whitmore also questioned whether she was a victim of “gaslighting” to make the experience she endured “normalised”.
Speaking amid the BBC’s investigation, she added to the publication: “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.”
Following Pernice’s claims in the ITV interview, a spokeswoman for Abbington said: “Mr Pernice’s claim that ‘everything in the rehearsal room worked perfectly’ is false and delusional, and underlines the toxic culture Ms Abbington endured on Strictly Come Dancing.
“The BBC’s own investigation concluded that Mr Pernice was in breach of multiple BBC Policies, including repeated breaches of the Anti-Bullying and Harassment Policy.
“Mr Pernice was spoken to by the BBC on several occasions about his misconduct – but his behaviour only continued. At no time did Ms Abbington regard his verbal abuse or inappropriate sexual behaviour as banter.
“This is precisely the kind of gaslighting behaviour which victims of bullying and harassment often have to endure: it’s these people Ms Abbington will continue to speak up for.
“Ms Abbington remains concerned about the way the inquiry into her complaint was handled by the BBC, and the leaking of the investigation Report to the press, and will be meeting with the Corporation in due course to raise these in more detail.”