Giovanni Pernice feared he would lose everything in the Strictly Come Dancing bullying row, he has revealed.

As he returns to our screens tonight for the first time since leaving the hit show last summer, the Italian dancer admits there were “dark times”. The BBC launched an investigation after Giovanni’s dance partner Amanda Abbington, 50, quit Strictly in October 2023 and accused him of being “abusive” towards her. The probe upheld six of 17 complaints against Giovanni, 34 – but not did not find he had physically abused the Sherlock actress. The pro dancer insists he was a “strict teacher” but was never a bully.

And now the star is determined to put the events of the last year behind him as he makes a fresh start – including appearing on Channel 4’s Celebrity Hunted tonight with fellow Strictly pro Kai Widdrington, 29. Giovanni told the Sunday Mirror: “I’m not going to lie, there were dark moments in terms of, you know, this is finished, this is the end of my career. That was one of my down moments. Sorry for my language but 2024 can f**k off. I’ve been looking forward to seeing the back of it.”

Giovanni opens up about his difficult 2024 after bullying accusations saw him leave Strictly ( 
Image:
ITV)
The BBC apologised to Amanda in September after its investigation upheld complaints of verbal bullying and harassment. Addressing what happened after the actress complained to the BBC about him, Giovanni says: “Even with that I was like, I need to be a better man. I have to.

“Every time she came out with another interview I was always maintaining a calm inside. Trust me, it wasn’t easy, there were dark times. But I know what I did – that kept me calm, because I knew the truth from the beginning. I was expecting and waiting that all of this would finish and come back with the results that I wanted it to be. I know what the truth is, I know who I am, so you just wait and move on with life.”

Gio faced a BBC probe after his 2023 Strictly partner accused him of bullying – which he vehemently denied ( 
Image:
BBC)
The experience, he believes, has made him stronger. He says: “After last year where everything happened, I decided to take life day by day because you never know what is going to happen, things can change in a moment. And then after being down there is only one way up. And you come back fighting and even stronger, you try to find better solutions.” In 2021, two series before the bullying row broke out, Giovanni won the 19th series of Strictly with EastEnders actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, now 30.

His career, he admits, owes a lot to his strong competitive edge. He says: “Competitiveness, you know, it’s what I do for a living. I was born that way, so I’ve got that competitiveness in me and nobody will ever take it out of me, whatever I do. If I’m on the run, if I’m on a dance show, if I playing cards with my mates, you know, if there is a competition, I’m there. That’s what keeps me going when I face any adversity in my life. I have to think positively. Since the age of seven I started to compete in dance competitions. Everything I do, I always find a solution or a way to make it work. I just think I am built that way. I built myself that way.”

And he is taking that that competitiveness into Celebrity Hunted, in which pairs of stars go on the run and try to evade a team of ex-cops working to track them down.

Gio and Stricty pro Kai Widdrington partner up for the new series of Celebrity Hunted ( 
Image:
Channel 4)
Other celebrities taking part in the series include Loose Women’s Denise Welch, 66, and her husband Lincoln Townley, 52, pop star Duncan James, 46, and model Christine McGuinness, 36, podcasters David “Sideman” Whitely, 33, and Zeze Millz, 35, soap actresses Danielle Harold, 32, and Kimberly Hart-Simpson, 38, and news anchors Simon McCoy, 63, and Lucrezia Millarini, 48.

Giovanni says: “It’s exciting to be back on British TV, it’s been a while. I took it very, very serious – that’s what I do. I took everything very serious and that, you know, ends up to be my problem in general.”

Viewers will also get to see his cheeky side when he decides to take the fight to the Hunters by personally delivering a pizza to their HQ. He reveals: “As always, I was making history! I said, ‘What has never happened in all these series of Hunted?’ And no one has ever turned up at their door. It’s never happened before, something like this. I was like, ‘I want to be memorable. So let’s go to their place for once’. So I had a special pizza made up and delivered it myself to their place with a note. That was so much fun. I can’t wait to see how they reacted to that.”

After being crowned champion in the Italian version of Strictly in December – and falling for his dance partner, singer and actress Bianca Guaccero, 43, in the process – Giovanni’s fortunes are certainly looking up. As well as Hunted, he is off on a UK tour – and is excited to get back in front of a live crowd.

Gio kisses girlfriend Bianca after winning the Italian version on Strictly ( 
Image:
Maurizio D’Avanzo/MDPhoto/ipa-agency.net/REX/Shutterstock)He says: “I can’t wait to reconnect with Mother Nature, which is my UK fan base, because they’ve been supportive all the way through and I’ve missed them.” The shows will be bittersweet for both Giovanni and his fans – as he reveals they will be his last. He says: “It’s going to be so emotional when I get back on stage in front of them again, and even more emotion is the fact that this is my last tour. I need a break, darling. I’m 35 years old. I’ve been doing this for 10 years.”

Considering his next moves away from the dance floor, Giovanni is looking to become an actor. He says: “That’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but obviously English is not my first language, so we have to see. I need to go to English school first of all to learn English properly. And I like to sing too, so maybe some singing lesson to improve my singing.”

* Celebrity Hunted starts tonight at 9pm on Channel 4. Gio’s tour, The Last Dance, opens January 20 and plays around the country – for tickets, go to Giovannipernice.com