Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Giovanni Pernice has allegedly reached out to former partner Amanda Abbington for the first time since the Sherlock actress made her claim of “abuse” against him.
The 50-year-old quit the series during week five and initially claimed it was to do with health reasons, however, it later emerged that she had spoken with show bosses regarding Pernice’s “bullying” and the “abuse” she suffered at the time.
In her first interview since the initial allegation with Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Abbington, 50, claimed that Pernice’s, 33, lawyers were withholding footage from their rehearsals and alluded to an incident of a “sexual nature”.
Since the initial report and throughout the BBC’s investigation into his conduct, Pernice has vehemently denied the allegations and vowed to do everything he could to clear his name.
It has since been reported that Abbington was forced to “block” Pernice’s number after he allegedly tried to contact her despite the ongoing dispute.
The investigation into Abbington’s claims is still ongoing, with a decision from the BBC eagerly being awaited, however, according to The Sun on Sunday: “Giovanni tried to call Amanda a few weeks ago.
“Nobody knows why. They’ve not spoken since she quit the show, so for him to call out of the blue, especially with an inquiry taking place, is very odd.
“Amanda didn’t want to speak to him and blocked his number. She wants nothing to do with Giovanni. She told her team of the incident and they passed on the information to the BBC executives heading up the inquiry. Giovanni hasn’t been in touch since.”
The reports that Pernice tried to contact Abbington come a week after The Mail on Sunday reported that the dancer is expected to be cleared by the BBC’s investigation.
A source told the publication: “The BBC wanted to exonerate Mr Pernice because nothing that Amanda said could be proven and that he had been very supportive of her.”
GB News has contacted Pernice and Abbington’s representative for comment.
Whilst the BBC do their best to diffuse the situation – especially since Graziano Di Prima was also axed from the show due to claims an insider saw the Italian dancer “kick, hit and spit” at partner Zara McDermott – they have been brought into the spotlight once again.
This year, bosses have reportedly decided to scrap same-sex couples from the upcoming 20th series, and are keen to get back to its roots of opposite-sex couples.
Over the last four years, there has been a same-sex couple each year, with the first, Nicola Adams and Katya Jones, partnered up on the 2020 series.
Their time together was cut short due to Katya contracting Covid, but the next year Strictly stuck with increasing representation of LGBTQ+ communities, by including an all-male couple, John Whaite and Johannes Radebe.
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In 2022, Jayde Adams and Karen Hauer were paired up, while last year saw Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin dance their way to the final.
But according to the Daily Mail, Strictly wants to return to its roots by sticking with opposite-sex couples, with a source claiming that although the BBC wants to appear “inclusive and progressive” they won’t be having a same-sex couple this year.
