TV presenter Laura Whitmore said she felt “gassed” by BBC bosses when she first raised concerns about her experience on Strictly Come Dancing.
The former Love Island presenter partnered with professional dancer Giovanni Pernice in 2016 and was the seventh celebrity eliminated from the BBC One show.
Fellow Strictly star Amanda Abbington said the behavior of Pernice – who she partnered with in 2023 – was “abusive, cruel and mean-spirited”. Pernice rejected “any suggestion of abusive or threatening behavior.”
Speaking to the Irish Post, Whitmore, from Dublin, said that when she first raised concerns she was “gaslighting to make everything seem normal”.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines gaslighting as the action of deceiving or controlling someone into believing things that are not true.
Whitmore said: “It’s a shame that this has to come out in such a victim-shaming way, which it always does. And being the first person to speak out about anything is always difficult.”
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‘Inappropriate behavior’ during rehearsals
The 39-year-old said last month in a social media post that she had been asked to speak to the BBC about allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”, along with six other people. She said at the time that she thought her experience on the show “was specific to me, but I’ve since learned that I was wrong.”
She added: “I’m not looking for anything, just an acceptance that what happened to me in the rehearsal rooms during my time on BBC Strictly was wrong and won’t happen to anyone else.”
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Abbington claimed there are 50 hours of video footage – from cameras she claims were installed in the rehearsal room after she raised concerns during her first week – that Pernice “doesn’t want anyone to see”, but which has been seen by the BBC.
The results of an investigation, launched by the BBC following the allegations, have not yet been published, but the broadcaster announced new methods to “strengthen welfare and support” for the program, including a chaperone who would be present during training. room rehearsals “at all times”.
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