The parents of Strictly Come Dancing pro Giovanni Pernice have opened up on their son’s shock exit from the show. It follows Amanda Abbington’s decision to quit Strictly last weekend, citing “personal reasons”.

But with speculation rife that Amanda chose to quit due to a ‘feud’ between herself and professional partner Giovanni, his parents have hit back in defence of their boy.

Giovanni and Amanda’s partnership came to an abrupt end last week (Credit: BBC)
Parents of Giovanni Pernice speak out on Strictly exit

Speaking to The Sun, Giovanni’s parents put forward their side of the story. And they seemed as shocked as the rest of us.

“We are surprised by the fact she left the show, because everything was going okay — we thought they could have won. It all seemed okay for them before she quit the show.

My son is a really nice, polite and respectful boy. He always had good results with different partners and he has never had problems with them,” said Giovanni‘s dad, Piero.

Sometimes you have to push a person to get to their best, but sometimes that isn’t what one person needs

“We’d never heard anyone saying negative things about Giovanni. The only thing Giovanni thought was, sometimes Amanda was tired during training.

In my opinion, sometimes you have to push a person to get to their best, but sometimes that isn’t what one person needs.”

Did the pressures of training get to Amanda? (Credit: BBC)
‘He was just doing his job,’ says mum Rosalda

Giovanni’s mum, Rosalda, agreed. And, addressing Giovanni and Amanda‘s training, Rosalda remained defensive.

“I can just talk about Giovanni as a person. I’m surprised such a good partnership has ended. Giovanni has always had good relationships with all the other partners, like Rose. Giovanni is an excellent person.

He is really loved by the English people. They have to train tough hours to get some results. Giovanni has just done what he had to do. He was just doing his job.”