So just what DID Strictly’s demanding dance star Giovanni do to one partner that was so ‘horrendous’?
It’s a bizarre showbiz ‘scandal’ — a Saturday night favourite accused, a growing crisis at the BBC...but no one will explain what it’s all about!
I‘I’m glad the world is seeing him for who he truly is’
T’S surely the most opaque and confusing scandal in modern TV history. Just what ‘horrendous things’ — as one of his dance partners vividly put it — did Strictly Come Dancing’s demanding star Giovanni Pernice do that has upset her and others so badly?
The crisis at one of TV’s best-loved Saturday night programmes is worsening by the day — and now threatens not only to destroy the career of the 33-yearold Italian heartthrob (who memorably won the glitterball with EastEnders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis in 2021) but to jeopardise the entire future of the show.
Last night, dancers and producers alike were taking trenchant sides in this increasingly ugly dispute, after a raft of fresh allegations against the ballroom star emerged over the weekend in a red-top newspaper.
For his part, Pernice has been spotted hiding out on the Portuguese island of
Madeira. But if sunlight truly is the best disinfectant, as the old adage has it, then it will take more than a few UV rays to cleanse the Sicilian, and Strictly itself, of the taint from these toxic allegations.
So what is the truth? Is Pernice a bully, an abuser?
Or is he merely a perfectionist who rightly demanded the best of his partners in a tough competition — and who wanted to win at any cost?
The first allegations emerged back in January, when it was leaked to the press that Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington — who had quit the show last October — had demanded that the BBC supply with her with footage of her rehearsals with Pernice. She claimed that she was suffering from ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ after her dealings with him.
Bosses naively wrote her off as a troublemaker, and I’m told that her claims even left some unsympathetic producers in fits of giggles.
TV chiefs thought the issue would simply blow over — not least because those close to her appeared to be making their complaints in anonymous briefings to the newspapers, rather than Abbington herself doing so through proper official channels.
‘“Nothing to see here” was the attitude,’ a BBC source tells me.
They also pointed out that although Abbington had alleged misbehaviour against Pernice when she quit the show in October — Pernice was spoken to by a ‘duty-of-care counsellor’ as a result — she did not make a formal complaint to the BBC until some time during the past six weeks. One
BBC source says: ‘Producers couldn’t understand why Amanda was making such a fuss.
‘There was no official complaint from her — so the view was that she was just stirring things up. She didn’t get on with Giovanni, so they assumed she was after some attention. We all knew Giovanni works people hard — but that’s it.’
Except that clearly wasn’t it. Following Abbington’s lead, her fellow Strictly contestants — Good Morning Britain’s Ranvir Singh and TV presenter Laura Whitmore — met with her to discuss their own allegations against Pernice. Suddenly it felt like a crisis. Last week, it was confirmed that three women, Abbington among them, had hired the notoriously aggressive legal firm Carter-Ruck to pursue their claims against Pernice and the BBC with vigour.
The firm said: ‘There have been numerous serious complaints made to the BBC who are now in the process of evidence-gathering. As it is still an ongoing matter, no further comment can be made at this stage.’
Pernice has told friends he intends to quit the show — despite having launched negotiations to film this year’s series, and even being handed a contract to appear in the 2024 competition as recently as April.
Some fans feel he has been hard done by — and undergone ‘trial by media’. It is, all told, a sorry affair — one that has left this jewel of Saturday-night programming badly tarnished.
The scandal took a fresh twist this week when professional dancer Korina Travis, 29, who has performed with Pernice at private functions, wrote on Instagram: ‘I’ve known him for years as a fellow competitor and he has done horrendous things to me. I will not speak about my experiences with him but I’m glad the world is seeing him for who he truly is.’
Last night, one cast member told me that the whole team is deeply shaken: ‘Strictly has always been such a close-knit show, with everyone so supportive. But now people are finding themselves choosing sides.’
The source added: ‘Some people are backing Gio, of course: he is adored by many. But others are finding themselves in the tricky situation of not wanting to disbelieve the women. It has caused some ructions: there is a lot of bluster.’
Part of the problem many face in choosing whom or what to believe is that it is still not clear what precisely Pernice is supposed to have done. Abbington told friends that she felt the Italian star to be ‘abrasive’ and ‘bullying’, amid claims that he had ‘stamped on her foot’ during rehearsals.
A source — believed by some to be Abbington herself — told the Sun newspaper that she had suffered bruising after their ‘toxic’ rehearsal sessions, that she was reduced to tears and left feeling ‘sad and despondent’.
She subsequently wrote on social media, in comments thought to be about Pernice: ‘Make people feel embarrassed of being associated with misogynists. Make misogyny unprofitable for anyone to pursue. Deprive misogyny of the oxygen it needs to survive.’
Yesterday, Pernice was dealt a further devastating blow when a source close to deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis — with whom he won the show’s 19th series — revealed that she ‘believes’ the claims against him.
A source told a newspaper: ‘Rose
‘It’s a close-knit show but people are picking sides’
is finding the whole situation really tough. She had a really great experience with Gio so is really shocked by it all.
‘She of course believes what others are saying, but she is just trying to not get involved. She won’t be speaking about it publicly.’
Tellingly, Ayling-Ellis’s official spokesman declined to say whether or not she continued to support Pernice. Yet while AylingEllis may choose to ‘believe’ the women now lining up to savage the Strictly star, some observers have pointed out that she never raised a whisper of complaint against him during their long path to victory.
One exasperated insider points out: ‘It’s not yet clear what Gio has actually done. Yet he is being dragged through this and it is very much threatening his future. He is on public trial without the full story being divulged.’
For now, at least, Pernice does have some firm and loyal allies. Judge Anton du Beke — a close friend with whom he has filmed the BBC’s Anton & Giovanni’s Adventures in Sicily and Spain — is said to be supporting him behind the scenes. Strictly’s head of makeup, Ant McPartlin’s ex-wife Lisa Armstrong, also appears to be ‘Team Gio’: she made her feelings on the matter clear when she ‘liked’ his online post defending himself.
Pernice wrote of Abbington’s claims: ‘I am totally surprised and disappointed to learn of these allegations. I reject any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour, and I look forward to clearing my name . . .
‘No one is more ambitious for my dance partners than me. I have always strived to help them be the very best dancers they can be. This has always come from a place of love and wanting to win — for me and my dance partners.’
Amid the furore, some sympathetic fans have even coined the slogan: ‘Justice for Gio!’
So now the question: can Strictly survive this scandal?
BBC insiders tell me that the fallout has left a ‘dark cloud’ hanging over the programme as it prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Pernice was, inevitably, due to play a significant role in this milestone. One source says: ‘There are exciting plans for this year’s series. Getting to 20 years is an amazing feat.
‘The problem now is that the viewers will still be talking about Giovanni — and his absence will leave a gaping hole.
‘But as well as that, the investigation or its aftermath is likely to plague the series.
‘It’s a terrible shame. It was supposed to be so special.’
Pointing out that Pernice had already been handed his contract for this year’s series, one insider scoffed: ‘Why wouldn’t we have done that?
‘The truth is that Amanda hadn’t made a complaint to the BBC and neither had the other women.
‘There was nothing for anyone to actually investigate because she was clearly talking to the papers rather than the BBC.’
As Strictly’s longest-serving male dancer, who left school aged 14 and who arrived in Britain in 2015 barely speaking a word of English, Pernice has accumulated a huge and devoted following. Many fans flatly refuse to believe he mistreated Abbington — or anyone else for that matter.
His 2021 win with Ayling-Ellis cemented his popularity: as the couple performed to Clean Bandit’s Symphony, the music stopped in the middle of their dance, giving fans an insight into Ayling-Ellis’s life as a deaf person. The event
‘Could this be the beginning of the end for Strictly?’
won the ‘Must-See Moment’ at the 2022 Bafta television awards.
Yet now his career hangs in the balance. Pernice’s team insist that he has exciting television projects lined up, but with these potential accusations hanging over him, experts say that producers are likely to question whether it would be appropriate to hire him unless and until his name is cleared.
Some have speculated that ITV could scoop him up and send him to the Aussie Outback to appear on rival reality show I’m A Celeb — but sources tell me it would be ‘difficult’ to do so in the current climate.
‘How can any television channel put him in the jungle — a stressful and difficult environment — when these claims are still unresolved?’ demands one insider.
In three weeks, Pernice is due to begin his 30-date UK ‘tour’ with Anton Du Beke, set to run through June and July.
When asked yesterday if this extravaganza was still going ahead, organisers were silent — though there is, for now, every expectation that the show must go on (six nights have already sold out).
But while Pernice’s army of mostly female fans will no doubt turn out to support him, it’s unlikely that he will be able to shrug off these potential allegations any time soon.
And neither, it seems, will Strictly. As one BBC source put it: ‘It feels like this could be the beginning of the end — and what an absolute travesty that is. What a way for the show to go.’