Amanda Abbington 'turns down' Celebrity Big Brother after Strictly trauma

Amanda Abbington reportedly turned down a large sum of cash to take part in 'Celebrity Big Brother' after her 'Strictly Come Dancing' ordeal.

The 'Mr Selfridge' actress is said to have nothing against the rebooted ITV reality show, but she doesn't want to have to face the trolls again after she received hate online after she reported axed 'Strictly Come Dancing' professional Giovanni Pernice - who she was partnered with on the 2023 series of the BBC One Latin and ballroom show before she withdrew early - to the Beeb for allegedly bulling her during training.

An insider told The Sun newspaper: “Amanda decided to discreetly turn down the offer because she felt so traumatised by the last reality TV contest she was on.

“She couldn’t face going through all the trolling that she received when she complained about Giovanni which made her feel like public enemy number one.

“Of course, the fee for taking part would have been appreciated but she just couldn’t face it.

“Amanda has absolutely nothing against Celebrity Big Brother, though.

“Indeed, she will be tuning in to watch the show next year, along with the rest of the country.”

The scandal saw a full-blown investigation, which upheld six of 17 complaints Amanda, 53, made against the 34-year-old Italian dancer.

Giovanni hit out at trolls who attacked Amanda with "disgusting" messages.

Asked if there is anything he feels sorry for and would fix, he told ITV's 'Lorraine': "I think the trolling thing and the messages was disgusting.

"All these messages she received shouldn't happen at all."

The BBC apologised to Amanda over her 'Strictly' experience.

In a statement, the BBC said: "We have assessed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made.

"We want to apologise to Amanda Abbington and to thank her for coming forward and taking part. We know this would not have been an easy thing to do."

The report found that some of the language used by Giovanni towards Amanda could be "belittling" and agreed with the 'Sherlock' actress that his feedback was, at times, "overly negative" and that he had used profanity during rehearsals.

The report noted after reviewing several hours of rehearsal footage as part of an official investigation that there were two moments of "inappropriate behaviour of sexual banter in the workplace", which were found to simply have been "made and received as jokes" between the pair.