Amanda Abbington has hit back at Giovanni Pernice after he addressed her allegations of bullying on the Lorraine show today. The actress’s team has released a statement branding the Strictly Come Dancing star’s claims that their rehearsal room relationship was “perfect” as “false and delusional”.
This comes after Giovanni, 34, appeared on the ITV show, discussing the allegations for the first time since the BBC investigation’s findings were published. Although the BBC cleared Giovanni of the most serious claims, they did apologise to Amanda for some of her complaints, the Mirror reports.
Amanda’s team stated: “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 statement continued: “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 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.”
The statement continued: “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.”
Meanwhile, Giovanni explained his decision to break his silence on the Lorraine show, stating: “It’s the right time to do so”. He revealed that during the investigation, both he and Amanda were instructed to maintain confidentiality and professionalism.
The Strictly pro went on to praise his former partner, saying: “When you have somebody in your hands, like Amanda, she was brilliant and unbelievable at dancing. I’m upset because we could have made it all the way to the final.
“My job is to take everything out of my partner. It’s in the public domain, the fact I’m a strict teacher. If you want to achieve greatness, I think this is the right way to do.”
He went on: “The investigation didn’t find me a bully,” adding, “Bully is a big word, there’s a big difference between bullying and caring about what you do. All I had was ‘Giovanni you’re an amazing teacher, Giovanni you’re great’.”
He concluded by saying: “At that time everything was perfect, me and Amanda Abbington never had an argument.”
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here.