BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Amanda Abbington slams 'delusional' Giovanni Pernice after interview

Amanda Abbington has hit back at Giovanni Pernice and branded the BBC Strictly Come Dancing star ‘delusional’ after a bombshell interview. Speaking today, Giovanni insisted things had been 'perfect' between him and Amanda prior to her Strictly exit.

Giovanni insisted he is not a bully when he appeared on ITV Lorraine show today. In an exclusive statement to The Sun, Amanda's team said: "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 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.

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"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.

"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."

Gio said: "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.”

"The investigation didn’t find me a bully," he said. "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 continued : "At that time everything was perfect, me and Amanda Abbington never had an argument."