Amanda Abbington will never stop slinging mud, fears Giovanni: Tormented star reveals his next move against the BBC and Strictly after ‘white wash’ report, reveals KATIE HIND

Giovanni Pernice walked down a red velvet staircase with his glamorous dance partner and beamed with happiness.

With the blue skies of Rome behind him, he spoke excitedly about his upcoming performance on Ballando Con Le Stelle – the Italian version of Strictly.

Pernice told his fans on Instagram that his first week on the show, alongside Italian actress Bianca Guaccero, had gone well and that they were both looking forward to their second appearance.

It was, friends say, a “good day.” A few hours beforehand, Giovanni had learned that only six of Amanda Abbington’s seventeen complaints against him had been accepted by the BBC after a six-month investigation. He said the most serious allegations she had made were not accepted.

Now it seemed like it was finally time to move on from the debacle that saw him quit this year’s professional lineup of Saturday night’s show.

However, that optimism turned out to be short-lived. Within 24 hours of the BBC report being published, the actress had given interviews claiming that Pernice had been exonerated.

One particularly damaging one was that 34-year-old Pernice would ‘sketch his erection’ when she got a dance move right; another, that the dancer allegedly told Amanda she was a “menopausal woman and I would still fuck you.”

In reality, the BBC review – which involved hours of rehearsal footage – had found ‘no evidence of the alleged… gestures’, nor found any evidence to support the allegations that Pernice had made such a crude statement.

It is, friends say, another attack on the Sicilian dance star’s reputation, which has once again tormented him. This week has been “a very difficult time,” they say. They even talk about their fear that Abbington will “just never stop throwing mud at him.”

A source close to Pernice told me: ‘It’s been terrible for Giovanni. He spent more than six months reading stories about himself that were untrue, and then the investigation found that he had not done everything Amanda and her friends had told the media.

‘But just when he thought it was over that he could move on, Amanda decided to go public and say more horrible things of a sexual nature about Gio, which were not confirmed by BBC investigators – and it’s taking its toll . She did interviews in which she seemed unchallenged on matters that were not considered proven by the BBC’s HR department.

‘He just doesn’t understand why this is all fair. It’s like he’s being tormented.’

Despite the swirling accusations in recent months, friends of Pernice are keen to point out that he ‘does not want to be seen as a victim’.

But it has, they say, been “difficult” getting people to think things about him that he claims are “not true.”

“Amanda knows how damaging it is for her to say things of a sexual nature about him,” the friend adds. Since when is it normal for people to say things like that? He can’t understand it.’

And worst of all for Pernice, they don’t know when it might end – if at all.

“It’s going to be absolutely ridiculous and really quite devastating,” the source said.

Adding insult to injury for Pernice, many of the complaints against the dancer seemed relatively weak.

Some related to his coaching style and heated arguments involving profanity. For example, in one, Pernice told Amanda, “I’m tired of it, if you want to look damned, I don’t care.”

Another complaint, which was also upheld, was that Pernice told the actress: “You have so much talent and you don’t use it.”

In another outburst, Pernice said ‘f******’ and threw his arms in the air as he taught her how to perform a routine.

But he wasn’t the only one who used foul language. As I revealed last week, the panel ruled that Ms Abbington was the only one of the two to use the ‘c-word’ in rehearsal footage. And in written conversations between the two on WhatsApp, she called her dance partner a ‘k***head’, a ‘d***face’ and a ‘t**t’.

Damn enough, it was even Amanda who was deemed to have used foul language based on the evidence reviewed by BBC investigators.

Abbington has also openly admitted that he uses such language – and that he finds it funny.

An unearthed video, which has surfaced on video sharing site TikTok, shows the actress praising her “amazing” partner Pernice and laughing about how much they swore at each other during rehearsals.

Abbington says in the clip: “Me and Giovanni played some really funny games. We have to be very careful, because we swear a lot, Giovanni and I.

‘We’re really bad swearers, always. We eff and blind and make each other laugh. And I love our dance.

“He’s an incredible choreographer, and he’s amazing and he’s created something really beautiful. It’s going to be so beautiful and amazing and fun and I’m really excited about it. It’s a wonderful rollercoaster.’

So what could be the next chapter in this messy story?

Such is Pernice’s frustration that I am told he is considering legal action against Abbington – he certainly has not ruled it out.

Then there’s the BBC. The Corporation publicly apologized to Abbington on the day the report was released and thanked her for raising her complaints. Two days later she was interviewed by the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire, who did not intervene when she made a claim that was not accepted in the report.

“The BBC allowed a whitewash of a report that allowed Amanda to suggest she won this one hands down,” said a friend of the star. ‘But she didn’t.

‘That is of course very annoying and disturbing for Giovanni. It allowed her to create a story.”

I’m told BBC staff are ‘devastated’ he won’t be appearing on Strictly this year, and believe Pernice was forced to leave.

Loyal viewers feel the same. Someone said last week: ‘Come on BBC, get Giovanni Pernice back for next year, show some backbone! He is the best dancer you have! By letting her get away with this, you open the door to the end of Strictly…’

But no matter what happens in the background, Pernice can still end the year on a high.

He currently sits at the top of the Ballando Con Le Stelle leaderboard and is the favorite to win.

And that would be an appropriate response not only to his former employers, but also to Mrs. Abbington.

With a shimmy and shake ‘Samba Samantha’, Quek lit up the dance floor last night with Nikita Kuzmin. They scored 28 points for their routine to Hips Don’t Lie by Shakira. Nick Knowles returned after missing last week with an injury.

He and Luba Mushtuk scored 21 for their Charleston to Rain On The Roof from Paddington 2. Judge Motsi Mabuse told him: ‘It takes a lot of courage to come back.’

“Gio and I, we swear a lot,” the star told fans

An unearthed video of Amanda Abbington shows the actress praising her ‘amazing’ partner Giovanni Pernice and laughing about how much they swore at each other during rehearsals.

Earlier this month, the former Sherlock actress, 50, accused her one-time Strictly Come Dancing partner of a “constant litany of verbal abuse” during an interview with BBC’s Newsnight.

But in a video that has resurfaced on TikTok, Ms Abbington sits in a car after a rehearsal with Pernice, 34, singing his praises and telling her Instagram followers how much she enjoyed her day. She said: ‘Me and Giovanni played very funny games.

‘We have to be very careful, because we swear a lot, Giovanni and I. We’re really bad swearers, just all the time. We eff and blind and make each other laugh. And I love our dance.

“He’s an incredible choreographer, and he’s amazing and he’s created something really beautiful. It’s going to be so beautiful and amazing and fun and I’m really excited about it. It’s a beautiful roller coaster, like I said. We did our dance for the first time in the studio – three times in front of the cameras. I love our dance, it’s a beautiful thing.’

While Ms Abbington claimed Pernice verbally abused her, the BBC ruled the actress was the only one of the pair to have used the ‘c-word’ in the many hours of rehearsal footage seen by investigators.

The review also found that the use of derogatory terms and swear words between the couple was common.

Despite things appearing to be going well for Mr Pernice, Ms Abbington abruptly left Strictly in week six, citing personal reasons.