by Strictly Come DancingGiovanni Pernice spoke in detail about the rehearsal room relationship with Amanda Abbington 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, revealing she suffered PTSD as a result of the experience. Pernice has denied any wrongdoing and a month-long BBC investigation into his conduct acknowledged Abbington’s complaints of verbal bullying and harassment but concluded that the Italian dancer was not physically aggressive towards his celebrity partner.
Since the inquiry, Abbington has said she is considering further action over specific allegations such as the claim that Pernice made lewd sexual gestures towards her.
Speaking about his relationship with the Sherlock actor in an interview for the first time since the probe, said Pernice MailOnline that he and Abbington would share jokes together and “she would say really bad things, like the c word”.
Pernice, 34, recalled that the production team noticed that he and Abbington would exchange insulting words, but Abbington insisted it was a joke.
“In fact, the production team came to us and said, ‘We’ve noticed that you call each other that word, is that okay?'” Pernice said.
“And she was like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s good, I call it that! It’s okay, I started it’, were her words. And I was like, ‘Yeah guys, we’re fine, we’re joking like this.'”
“She’s the one who would start the joke. She would tell a dark joke. That’s the joke we had from the beginning, a very polite joke.”
Pernice, who entered the BBC dance competition in 2015, was axed from the show after the allegations came to light.
After sending the results of its investigation, the BBC issued an apology to Abbington and thanked her for coming forward. He faced complaints such as Pernice becoming frustrated with the actress as she taught her the routines.
Pernice has now said that other couples would also get frustrated, and it was “not just us”.
He claimed that within the second week of working with the actor, another contestant informed him that Abbington was unhappy with his training.
Pernice claims to have received another understanding. “I still am [Amanda’s] messages. “They say: ‘Thank you so much for your patience today, you’re an incredible teacher,’ so I thought it was great,” he said.
“Then one of the celebrities came up to me and said, ‘You haven’t had a great week, have you?’
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ But Amanda had told them she’d had a terrible week – and that was the first week, before the show even started.”
Pernice argued tfrom MailOnline that he asked for exercises to be monitored and recorded to “protect” himself, but Abbington claimed months ago that she was the one who asked for the exercises to be filmed.
The dancer said he was “devastated” when Abbington quit the show, initially citing health reasons after she discovered two lumps in her breast and couldn’t focus on rehearsals. The lumps were found to be benign.
Abbington told The Sun earlier this month she told Pernice: “I’m going to the hospital now because I got two lumps in my chest this morning,” to which he allegedly replied: “Let me know how it goes.” She said the moment gave her an excuse to leave Strictly.
However, Pernice now says he offered to call his doctor for her.
Reflecting on the last time they communicated, the dancer said: “Amanda told me she couldn’t concentrate because she had found two lumps in the shower.”
“I said, ‘Tell me it’s nothing serious,’ and the first thing I did was call my doctor and try to arrange a scan for her right away.”
“So the last message between us was me saying to her: ‘Can I help you? Please let me help you, forget the dance, forget the show, this is more important than anything.’ This was the last I heard from Amanda.” The Independent contacted Abbington representatives for comment.
After the results of the investigation were released, a spokesperson for Pernice said the dancer was “satisfied” that the report found “no evidence of threatening or abusive behavior” by him, noting that he is “relieved” that a large majority the allegations. out to the BBC who were not upheld”.
Abbington, meanwhile, said she was “deeply concerned” by the BBC’s apology, describing it as “confirmation of my complaint” and “for the other people who have contacted me since I made my complaint to raise concerns tell about their own experience” .
“I hope that those who felt unable to speak out will now have more confidence that they will be heard and believed,” she said.
