Yahoo News Amanda Abbington's most heartbreaking Strictly confessions in TV interviews
Amanda Abbington is 'worried' to leave her home after Strictly trolling
Watch Amanda Abbington reveal heartbreaking death threats her family have received
Amanda Abbington has laid her heart on the line in her first tell-all TV interviews about the Strictly complaint.
It's no secret that the Sherlock star was feuding with her professional dancer Giovanni Pernice behind the scenes of the BBC show. She claimed he was a "militant" teacher and accused him of "bullying" but the dancer has rejected any claims of "threatening or abusive behaviour". BBC are investigating and the probe is ongoing. Pernice has left Strictly.
On camera, the actor confided in her fellow Strictly star Krishnan Guru-Murthy in a pre-recorded interview for Channel 4 News. Abbington then sat down for her first live interview on Lorraine with Christine Lampard where she said she had become "public enemy number one".
We take a look at Abbington's most heartbreaking confessions from her TV interviews...
Read more: Strictly Come Dancing 2024 line-up rumours, start date and more
Amanda Abbington is worried to leave her home
Abbington admitted her life had been altered after competing on Strictly. Now, the TV star confessed she feels "vulnerable" when she leaves her Hertfordshire home, where she lives with her fiancé Jonathan Goodwin. After being targeted by trolls, Abbington said she doesn't leave her home often and she's completely off social media.
She told Lampard: "I go outside worried because I had messages saying 'watch your back because you are going after Giovanni'. I’m not. I just literally said, 'I’m not sure this is appropriate behaviour, can we address it?' That's all I did.
"The onslaught I've had for eight months, relentless. I’m off social media. I don't go out much. When I do, I feel very vulnerable and very exposed. I worry about my kids because 16 and 18 they don't need their mum to go through that. They're amazing my children."
Death and rape threats to Abbington's family
It has been eight months of death and rape threats, Abbington said. The actor said she had become "public enemy number one". She told Lampard: "I knew that raising and voicing my concerns probably would mark me as public enemy number one. I didn't expect the onslaught and persistent death threats and rape threats."
The mum spoke about both herself and her children receiving rape and death threats from Strictly and Pernice fans. She explained: "Not only to me but to my children and members of my family, Jonathan included. I've got screenshot after screenshot after screenshot. In the end, it got so much I couldn't screenshot them all because it was really starting to affecting my mental health. I thought everyone wants me dead and wants me to die of cancer."
As she spoke about the rape threats to her daughter, Abbington apologised to the TV audience. She said: "I'm so sorry if that's upset anyone watching. I'm so sorry. Things like that were happening every day for eight months."
At first, the threats surprised Abbington. In the Channel 4 News interview, she said: "Well, the aftermath has been something that I wasn’t expecting. The death threats and the rape threats towards not only myself, but my daughter and the threats of death to my son."
Abbington doesn't want Strictly axed
While Abbington has made an official complaint, she addressed headlines that claimed she wanted to "bring Strictly down". In a heartbreaking moment, the theatre star admitted she loved Strictly and doesn't want the show to die as a result of her complaint.
She told Channel 4: "I’m not taking anything away from Strictly. It’s a wonderful organisation and it’s a fantastic thing on Saturday night. I don’t want it to die. I want it to have a life. But these things that are happening aren’t right, and they need to be looked at and they’re not being looked at, and I think they should.
"For future people going into the show as well.’ So I just wanted them to acknowledge that there was bad behaviour going on, not only with me clearly, but with other people, and that needed to be addressed."
Abbington's envy of stars who had great Strictly experience
Abbington shared her love for Strictly on Lorraine and she called it a "beautiful British institution". She said: "I love Strictly. This is just an anomaly. I always wanted to do that show. It’s a beautiful British institution. You tune in Saturday night to watch Strictly, most people on that show are wonderful."
In fact, she felt envious of those who had a great time on Strictly. She also told Channel 4: "I’m envious of the people who had a wonderful experience on that show, and I’m so glad they did. And I feel really sad that I didn’t get to fulfil my journey."
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Blocking 50 hours of footage, says Abbington
In the Channel 4 News interview, Abbington claimed there is 50 hours of footage that was filmed in Strictly rehearsals that has been blocked. "Well there’s 50 hours of footage, that’s being blocked. I mean, 50 hours is a lot of footage. And a lot of time spent in a room that was toxic," she said.
She went on: "So in the first week, I raised my concerns to the producers, and they very quickly said ‘we’ll put…’ Well, I mean, Giovanni said that he asked for the cameras. He didn’t ask for the cameras. I know that he didn’t ask for the cameras, because the producers came to me and said, ‘we’re going to put in cameras so we can view the footage at the end of the week and make an assessment and see what’s going on’. And then every Friday after that, for the next sort of five weeks, I would get the producer saying on the Friday, ‘we’ve just watched the footage, but we are shocked and horrified. We’re so sorry’."
Abbington touched on this in her interview with Lampard on Lorraine, who pointed out it wasn't Pernice who had blocked the footage. To which, Abbington admitted: "I don't know how it's working." At this point, she took the opportunity to praise her lawyer for being "incredible".
BBC and Giovanni Pernice's response
After the Channel 4 interview, Pernice released a new statement to "refute any claim of threatening or abusive behaviour".
The statement said: "We are cooperating fully with the BBC’s review process. All parties have been asked to respect this process and to not speak to the media before it concludes. We will continue to respect the integrity of the investigation and believe it is the right forum for all the evidence to be reviewed.
"As part of the evidence-led review, the BBC has shared the allegations they have been able to substantiate with us. They do not resemble Amanda’s latest allegations, given to Channel 4, in any shape or form. Giovanni refutes any claim of threatening or abusive behaviour, and having provided the BBC with his evidence, is confident that the review will prove this."
The BBC said: "Anyone involved in a complaint has a right to confidentiality and fair process and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further on individuals. However, when issues are raised with us we always take them extremely seriously and have appropriate processes in place to manage this. As we have said before, we would urge people not to indulge in speculation.
"More generally, the BBC and BBC Studios takes duty of care extremely seriously. Our processes on Strictly Come Dancing are updated every year, they are kept under constant review and last week we announced additional steps to further strengthen welfare and support on the show."
