'We go to bed every night worrying about our daughter - she hasn't been the same since Strictly.' Amanda Abbington's parents tell the Mail why they feel 'sorry' for Giovanni - as others tell of her heartache over Martin Freeman split By Katie Hind Published: 01:31 BST, 27 July 2024 | Updated: 01:37 BST, 27 July 2024 e-mail View comments Amanda Abbington 's parents were used to watching their daughter getting rejected, firstly as a young ballet dancer, and then as an aspiring actress, dragging herself through the soul-destroying audition process, seeking her big break. She would, they say, speaking exclusively to the Mail, simply 'tough it out'.
Their daughter – an only child – is 'no snowflake' they insist. In fact, Amanda's mother, Patsy, recalls how Amanda's feet would regularly bleed into her ballet shoes during her twice-weekly training sessions, from age three to 16. Plus her stage school background – she studied at Laine Theatre Arts in Surrey after school – meant she'd had to develop a thick skin against the 'don't call us, we'll call you.
..' brush offs.
'It's a tough profession,' she says. 'You get rejected a lot. She got rejected a lot in the beginning.
' Amanda Abbington's parents Patsy, 75, and John, 77, spoke to the Mail from their home in Hatfield, Hertfordshire Amanda and Giovanni Pernice on last year's Strictly Come Dancing As her father John, a retired taxi driver, puts it: 'She's been told she wasn't good enough by far better people than those on Stric.
