Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice's previous dance partners "cried" when they met. The Sherlock actress last night shared her joy after the BBC concluded it's internal investigation into allegations made by the star. She alleged that during her time on Strictly Come Dancing , she had been subjected to abuse from Pernice who was later sacked from his role on the BBC programme.
Bosses at the BBC upheld six of the 17 claims put forward by Amanda . The upheld allegations include complaints of verbal bullying as well as harassment. Giovanni was subsequently cleared of allegations of threatening and abusive behaviour.
Throughout the investigation, the Italian dancer strongly denied the claims and stated the investigation would clear his name. Amanda, 50, admits she has "no regrets" about making her initial complaints and has endured "one of the worst years" of her life. Speaking to BBC's Victoria Derbyshire on Newsnight, she said she had met up with several of Giovanni's former dance partners and things became quite emotional.
The star claims she was put in contact with his former partners through mutual friends and "invited them over". "We just wanted to make sure we weren't on our own thinking this had only happened to us because we all have said the same thing," she told Derbyshire. She added: "It wasn't pleasant, it wasn't what the others were going through in other rooms.
We wanted to connect with each other." When probed on how the meeting with his former partners had gon.
