After Tasha Ghouri's success as Love Island 's first deaf contestant, the star revealed she'll be taking part in this year's Strictly Come Dancing . Following in Rose Ayling-Ellis' footsteps, the 26-year-old will be representing the deaf community on the dancefloor this year. EastEnders star Rose won the 2021 series of the show, alongside now ex professional Giovanni Pernice, who is currently under investigation amid 'bullying' claims made against him by former participants.
It has recently come to light that Tasha and Giovanni had a brief relationship back in 2022, with the dancer contacting Tasha just a month after winning Strictly with EastEnders actor Rose. Giovanni is said to have initiated the relationship with the Love Islander after seeing her on the ITV reality show - despite her dating Andrew Le Page from the show. Sources blamed the romance never getting fully off the ground as Giovanni travelling a lot while Tasha was focusing on her budding relationship with Andrew - despite him cheating on her in the villa.
Amid the setbacks, as source said: "Giovanni was persistent when it came to Tasha. They have a lot in common, both being dancers, and he had just learned a lot about the deaf community performing with Rose on Strictly, who Tasha really admires. Tasha was impressed by how gentlemanly he was, taking her out to top London restaurants and offering to send cars to collect her, but she's independent and always made her own way to see him.
" Thankfully for Tasha and Andrew, there will be no awkwardness backstage this year as Giovanni was removed from the dance show. His 2023 dance partner Amanda Abbington accused him of bullying, prompting the BBC to launch their own internal probe. Speaking to The Sun about romance rumours with Giovanni, Tasha confirmed they had once been in contact.
"I've met up with him a few times. But that was years ago. We are not in touch now, this is like ancient history," she insisted.
She added that her future is with Andrew Le Page , who she recently marked her two-year anniversary with while declining to comment on Giovanni's allegations. Tasha also described Andrew as 'the hottest man alive' and said there's no way she'd be tempted to cheat or be lured in by the infamous Strictly curse. Meanwhile, Giovanni is exploring other avenues aftet his career suffered a devastating blow after leaving Strictly, but claims the ongoing BBC investigation will clear his name.
In another knock to his career, his unisex fragrance, Vita, is now unavailable to shoppers, with its official website, hosted by Shopify, reading: "Sorry, this store is currently unavailable." Meanwhile the official Instagram account used to promote the scent has also been deleted from the Meta platform. Official documents filed to Companies House for GP Vita Ltd had four directors when it was launched on June 6, 2023.
But today, only one director, Giovanni, remains active with the company, after two resigned earlier this month, and one also terminated their appointment on December 15, 2023. A source told The Sun : "Gio feels the scrutiny on him has become too much, and now is the time to make a fresh start. He wants to focus on other TV projects, and feels he's achieved all he can on Strictly, having won the trophy back in 2021 and reaching the final an unprecedented four times.
" Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads ..
