The actress whose complaints against her dance partner sparked a wave of bad press surrounding the BBC's entertainment programme Strictly Come Dancing "fears the BBC will conceal its own findings", the British press reported this weekend.
The Strictly Scandal Explained
A friend of Amanda Abbington, who pulled out of the 2023 series and later claimed she was a victim of abuse by her dance partner Giovanni Pernice, told The Mirror newspaper that the BBC did not publish the findings of an internal investigation because they were due to be revealed in the same week that former star newsreader Huw Edwards appeared in court charged with making child abuse images, and "they didn't want two disasters in one week."
The unnamed friend added to The Mirror: "They've delayed it because of Edwards. We can't imagine they'll do anything other than get on with it and try to bury the investigation."
Pernice left the show before the new series, but has denied all allegations of misconduct against him. Another dancer, Graziano Di Prima, also left the show this summer, sacked by the BBC after allegations he kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott during rehearsals last year. Di Prima gave his first interview this weekend in which he denied kicking his dance partner, saying they remained friends and that he had not been given a chance to dismiss the claims or find out exactly what he was accused of.
