The controversy over behaviour behind the scenes of the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing wages on, with one former contestant saying this weekend she raised concerns during her time on the show, but was “gaslit to make it seem normalised.”
TV presenter Laura Whitmore did not name the individual she complained about, but she took part in the show in 2016, when she was partnered with Italian professional Giovanni Pernice. In an interview with The Irish Times newspaper this weekend, she said she it was “all coming out now, stuff I tried to speak about eight years ago.”
Whitmore couldn’t talk about the content of her complaints because, she explained, “it’s under review,” but she stressed she had raised concerns at the time.
She told The Irish Times that she either wasn’t listened to when she tried to complain, “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.”
The BBC reports that Pernice’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment to Whitmore’s remarks, however, he has previously denied all allegations of cruel behaviour by another former partner Amanda Abbington, whose complaints about her time on the show last year ignited the catalogue of bad PR stories to emerge from behind the scenes of Strictly Come Dancing, in what was intended to be its celebratory 20th year. The BBC’s investigation into the complaints against Pernice is expected to conclude in coming days.
The show is set to launch once more in a few weeks, with Olympic swimmer Tom Dean already confirming that he has signed up to take part.