DINH DOONG

A source claimed that Amanda Abbington’s anger towards her ex Martin Freeman might have played a part in the way she complained about her former Strictly partner Giovanni Pernice

Amanda Abbington “felt utterly helpless” following her split from Martin Freeman and faced “a terrible time” as her ex rebuilt his life with a younger woman, a source has claimed.

The 50-year-old actress met the Love Actually actor on the set of the 2000 film Men Only. The pair worked on several projects together and behind the scenes, they made a life for themselves in Hertfordshire, welcoming two children – son Joe, 18, and daughter Grace, 16.

But their relationship came to an end in 2016 and Martin found love again with French actress French Rachel Benaissa, who is 22 years younger than him. Following their split, Amanda went through “some very dark periods when she had no control” but things took a turn during her recent row with her former professional dancer partner Giovanni Pernice which made her find “some degree of control”, a source claimed.

 
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A source told Mail Plus: “Amanda had a terrible time when she and Martin split. She felt utterly helpless. It cannot have been easy seeing him leave and then rebuild his life with a much younger woman. She must have had some very dark periods when she had no control.

“But then Amanda found some degree of control with her case against her Strictly dance partner. It was as if she felt she was able to seize the initiative and get what she wanted if she kept going and going. Now she feels she has achieved just that.”

Meanwhile, friends of Giovanni claimed that Amanda was driven by “something much deeper than just her sense of having been the victim of verbal bullying and harassment” while training for Strictly. They claimed: “She was not giving up. Her drive to be proved right must have come from somewhere. But it seems so unfair to Gio that he has had to pay the price.”

Earlier this week, Amanda opened up on her torment in a Newsnight interview during which she said she hadn’t responded well to Giovanni’s way of teaching. After Victoria Derbyshire asked the Sherlock star about the behaviour, Amanda detailed a complaint with a shaky voice: “Um, yeah. It was one of the allegations that was upheld. There were two allegations,” she said before apologising for checking her 30-page probe report.

“There were two allegations of inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature. They were upheld and one of them was physical and one was verbal.” A visibly shaken Amanda then said the other allegation was verbal before saying: “And they weren’t isolated one-off incidents. They were over a period of seven weeks.” The latest claims come after six of her 17 allegations against the Italian dancer were upheld following an internal investigation at the BBC.

 
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Victoria read out Giovanni’s past statement at one point, adding that the Italian dancer told Newnight: “We are unable to comment any further and the BBC has asked both parties to respect confidentially.” Giovanni has previously strongly denied all of Amanda’s past allegations.

“It’s been one of the worst years of my life,” Abbington told BBC Newsnight. “I’ve been through a lot, women go through a lot, but it has been a very unpleasant, turbulent, relentless time in my life. I’ve had to deal with a myriad of horrible things.” The 50-year-old said that, in the last eight months, the number of threats she has received had “gone into the hundreds”.

In August, the Metropolitan Police confirmed they were investigating after they were called to the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park to an alleged death threat sent to Abbington, who was starring in When It Happens To You. “I had a credible death threat sent to my place of work, a theatre that I was working at, which was credible and the police had to be called,” Abbington said.

“I had a bomb threat sent to my place of work, threatening to blow the building up because I was pursuing this. I’ve had death threats sent to me, my family. I’ve had rape threats sent to my 15-year-old daughter, saying ‘I’m just laughing at the moment thinking about you having to watch your daughter get raped for what you’ve done to Giovanni Pernice’. They were every day I’d be getting those and I have screenshots that have been handed over to the Met Police.”

Amanda said the threats had “started up again” since the publication of the BBC review on Monday. She said she has been receiving threats including “I hope you die of cancer” and “I knew you’d get proven wrong you lying c***”. Despite the threats, Abbington said “I’ve got no regrets” about lodging complaints against Pernice.

“The death threats and the rape threats and the abuse I get are horrible and soul-destroying and heartbreaking,” she added. “But I do get women coming up to me in the street saying ‘You’re paving the way for my daughter to work in a safe environment and not feel threatened or in any way feel that they can’t speak out’.”