Strictly Come Dancing’s Amanda Abbington has admitted that she’s unsure if people still ‘like’ her anymore as she opens up on her future following the Giovanni Pernice bullying row.
In July last year, more than six months after she quit the BBC show citing ‘personal reasons’, the actress accused Pernice of ‘unnecessary, cruel and mean behaviour’ during their time dancing together on Strictly.
Giovanni rejected the claims immediately and a BBC investigation ruled in September that her claims of physical aggression and threatening behaviour were not upheld.
However, her complaints of verbal bullying and harassment were upheld and she was issued with an apology from the BBC.
Despite this, Amanda faced heavy backlash from the public, with the actress noting that she was subjected to ’20 to 30 death threats a day’ on social media, while her fiancé Jonathan Goodwin was forced to slam trolls accusing her of trying to ‘ruin’ Giovanni’s career.
And now in a new interview with The Times, Amanda has reflected on the aftermath of the row, remarking that she was made out to be the ‘villain’ in it all, before insisting that she has ‘no regrets’ about standing up for herself.
Strictly Come Dancing’s Amanda Abbington has admitted that she’s unsure if people still ‘like’ her anymore as she opens up on her future following the Giovanni Pernice bullying row
In July last year, the actress accused Pernice of ‘unnecessary, cruel and mean behaviour’ during their time dancing together on Strictly
While Giovanni’s career appears to be back on track, with the dancer having recently won the Italian version of Strictly, Amanda has thrown herself into a new, yet somewhat less high-profile role in the play (This Is Not A) Happy Room – playing to a more intimate audience in a theatre behind a north London pub.
Speaking to publication’s Dominic Maxwell, Amanda looked forward to the future and told how she would love to continue acting and even turn to directing down the line, but she isn’t sure of the public opinion of her following the tough period in her life.
She shared: ‘I don’t know what the industry thinks of me at the moment. I’ve been immersed in the aftermath of it all for a year. I don’t know whether I’ve been cancelled or whether people don’t like me any more, but I know I did what I did for the right reasons. I feel good about the future.’
During the chat, she looked back on being in the thick of the furore in which Giovanni accused her of trying to destroy his career, but Amanda insists she was trying to suggest that they have a ‘safe space’ to ‘take five minutes’ to ensure they were all ‘happy’, but yet instead she said: ‘I was made out to be the villain.’
She added: ‘Last year was one of the worst years of my entire life. I was very close to having a breakdown because of the constant barrage of abuse and hideousness.’
Despite the difficult time, Amanda insists she doesn’t ‘regret anything’ and in fact was ‘glad’ she spoke up for herself as she had never done so before, with the situation reminding her of being bullied as a child.
She told The Times: ‘The fallout from it wasn’t something I was anticipating, but I’m glad I did it, I am. I’m glad that I stood up for myself because it’s the first time I’ve ever really done that.’
Amanda went on to say that her years of being ‘bullied extensively’ as a child gave her the push to take action against Giovanni and she can see how ‘introverted’ people become when being bullied.
A BBC investigation ruled in September that her claims of physical aggression and threatening behaviour were not upheld. However, complaints of verbal bullying and harassment were upheld
Despite this, Amanda faced heavy backlash from the public, with the actress noting that she was subjected to ’20 to 30 death threats a day’ on social media
Amanda has reflected on the aftermath of the row, remarking that she was made out to be the ‘villain’ in it all, before insisting that she has ‘no regrets’ about standing up for herself
‘I don’t know what the industry thinks of me at the moment. I’ve been immersed in the aftermath of it all for a year. I don’t know whether I’ve been cancelled or whether people don’t like me any more’
She added that when she made her accusations, she was thanked and hugged by ‘so many women’, which she quipped was a nice changed from the numerous threats on social media.
With the ordeal now behind her, Amanda told how she can finally says she’s ‘actually happy’ now as she looks to moving on with her life, adding that she’s ‘learnt a lot’ about herself and can now ‘block certain things’ that she couldn’t before.
Amanda is best known for playing Miss Mardle in Mr Selfridge and Mary Watson in Sherlock, the BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective stories
Last year, she starred in a show at the Park Theatre in North London called When It Happens To You.
