Abbington drops complaint to BBC after quitting Strictly

AMANDA ABBINGTON, the actress and former Strictly Come Dancing contestant, has dropped a complaint to the BBC after claiming the show left her with post-traumatic-stress disorder.

Abbington, 52, demanded CCTV footage from the BBC of her rehearsals with dance partner Giovanni Pernice which reportedly left her in tears. She quit the programme citing “medical reasons”.

The BBC received no further contact from Abbington, the Mail Online reported, and the corporation now considers the matter “closed”.

The pair were said to have clashed over an intense rehearsal schedule, with Abbington struggling with her Italian partner’s “aggressive training style and attitude”.

A source told the Mail Online that Abbington had left the show for a “totally different medical condition” from PTSD, one which the show’s production team were “hugely supportive of ”. The BBC has been approached for comment.

A friend of Abbington had told The Sun newspaper that the actress had “spent a lot of time crying” while filming. They told the newspaper: “Amanda has been left broken and saddened by the whole experience. She has needed therapy and was left in shock by the behaviour she was exposed to.

“It has taken her months to get over what she went through. It was a real shock as she was initially so excited to sign up to the show to learn to dance, but instead she experienced an ordeal.”

Pernice, who won the show in 2021 alongside Eastenders actress Rose Ayling-ellis, has allegedly fallen out with previous celebrity partners. In 2016 Laura Whitmore, the former

Love Island presenter, said she “cried every day” and felt “uncomfortable” while training with him. She said: “I was placed with a dance partner I was extremely uncomfortable with and in the end I felt broken, I cried every day.

“And I really was broken, both mentally and physically, by the end.”

Pernice was also reported to have “feuded” with TV and radio presenter Richie Anderson during the 2022 competition.

Before Abbington left the show on Oct 21, the pair’s live performances had been greeted positively by the judges, but the actress was not invited back to perform in the show’s finale.

The BBC declined to comment.