Giovanni Pernice is reportedly considering suing Amanda Abbington. The former Strictly Come Dancing partners have been locked in a bitter feud since performing together on the BBC show. Amanda claimed Giovanni had been "cruel and abusive" – claims which he vehemently denies.
On Wednesday, Amanda sat down with Strictly co-star Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Channel 4 News and claimed that some of the "bullying" she was allegedly subjected to was "of a sexual nature". Recalling her time in the rehearsal room, Amanda claimed: “It’s bullying and it’s aggressive behaviour. There were other things that were very upsetting, that you manage in the room at the time, because you’re a woman, and you have to manage those things because otherwise, what do you do?” Krishnan said: “I heard, not from you, from somebody else, about an instance of, I suppose you’d call it humiliating behaviour of a sexual nature.
Is that right?” “Yeah. I mean, you know, one of the many things,” Amanda replied as Krishnan clarified the alleged incident in question was “not harassment, but humiliation”. Following these claims – which Giovanni denies – it's now been reported that the professional dancer "has not ruled out taking his own legal action" against his former partner.
"Giovanni knows what his options are when it comes to suing Amanda," one source told MailOnline . "Let's just say he has set himself up nicely with the infrastructure around him to pave the way. He is absolutely reserving his right.
This is a mess." It comes after Giovanni's team responded to Amanda’s latest claims. In a statement, they 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 also issued its own statement, which read: “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.” Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads ..
