The actor Amanda Abbington has revealed she and her daughter received rape and death threats after she withdrew from Strictly Come Dancing.
Abbington pulled out of last year’s series in October and has since alleged that the behaviour of her professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice was “unnecessary, abusive, cruel and mean”.
Pernice, who left the BBC show last month, has previously denied any accusations of abusive or threatening behaviour.
On Wednesday, Abbington told Channel 4 News the online abuse had been “brutal, relentless and unforgiving” and she received dozens of threats a day.
She said: “The aftermath has been something that I wasn’t expecting, you know, the death threats and the rape threats towards not only myself but my daughter, and the threats of death to my son.”
The 50-year-old added she was getting “dozens” of abusive messages a day on social media, including from people telling her to kill herself.
Referring to her experiences during rehearsals with Pernice, Abbington said: “I know what happened to me in that room wasn’t acceptable. I complained about it and sort of have not been taken seriously.”
The actor said Strictly producers told her they were “shocked and horrified” after reviewing footage of her training with Pernice and there was 50 hours of footage that had been “blocked”.
Abbington also claimed she knew of “three other women” who went through a negative experience during Strictly rehearsals, adding there were “potentially” more people to come forward.
In response, a BBC spokesperson said: “Anyone involved in a complaint has a right to confidentiality and fair process and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further on individuals.
“However, when issues are raised with us we always take them extremely seriously and have appropriate processes in place to manage this. As we have said before, we would urge people not to indulge in speculation.
“More generally, the BBC and BBC Studios takes duty of care extremely seriously. Our processes on Strictly Come Dancing are updated every year, they are kept under constant review and last week we announced additional steps to further strengthen welfare and support on the show.”
In June, it was announced that Pernice would not return to Strictly for this year’s series.
The dancer’s spokesperson previously said: “Giovanni refutes these allegations and denies any accusations of abusive or threatening behaviour.
“He has provided substantive evidence to the investigation, and he remains fully confident of clearing his name.”
• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
