Strictly’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy breaks silence with defiant message after bombshell Amanda Abbington interview
STRICTLY star Krishnan Guru-Murthy has broken his silence on the show scandal with a defiant message after his bombshell Amanda Abbington interview.
Krishnan competed on the BBC dance competition last year, and interviewed Amanda for a Channel 4 News special on Wednesday night.
But while Krishnan didn’t comment on his own experience on the show, or his opinion on the scandal, while in his journalistic capacity, he has shared a telling post on social media tonight.
After Amanda made explosive claims that some of the bullying she endured from Giovanni Pernice was ‘humiliating behaviour of a sexual nature’, Krishan took to his instagram stories this evening.
Re-sharing a post he originally posted when he left the competition, Krishnan added: “Just thought I would repost this from my last day at Strictly – as a lot of people have re-asked about my own experience. I stand by every word in the original post.”
The post was a snap of him hugging pro partner Lauren Oakley and featured a gushing caption about his time on the Saturday night spectacle.
He wrote at the time: “That’s all folks. Heartbroken. Thanks for the love and support – I’m so delighted that so many people enjoyed watching us.
“@bbcstrictly brought me more happiness than I ever imagined. It has been life changing and life affirming. There is something about taking big risks, performing, giving it everything, making yourself totally vulnerable and shedding the armour you normally use to survive that is exhilarating, liberating and inspiring.
“Dancing is physically and emotionally unique. I had more fun than should normally be allowed on television.”
He then went on to pay tribute to Lauren.
“”I owe the vast majority of it my stunning dance partner @laurenmayoakley who is brilliant in every way, funny, clever, caring, gorgeous and wise. She taught me with patience and trust, boosted me when I doubted, picked me up when I crumbled.
“If you want to understand the kind of person she is : when dance performance shut down during the pandemic Lauren worked in a care home, she dreams of running an animal sanctuary and she’s so fun she really ought to be presenting children’s (and family) television.
“She is an incredibly talented dancer, choreographer and producer. When we met she said she had one aim : to make me love dance. She succeeded in week one. And somehow we made it to week eight.”
He also praised the production team as “the best in entertainment”.
Krishnan’s post comes as Amanda broke down in tears as she spoke about the scandal enveloping the show.
As well as her claims against Giovanni, the show also fired Graziano Di Prima after footage emerged of him hitting, kicking and spitting on Zara McDermott.
While Amanda couldn’t go into all the details of her experience with Giovanni due to the ongoing BBC investigation, she spoke of the traumatic effect it has had on her.
“It was unnecessary and when stuff was getting thrown at me I’d shut down because I’ve been in abusive situations before in the past so I recognised the red flags, so I’d shut down and wouldn’t be able to do it because I felt attacked, not literally attacked.”
Hitting back at trolls who, she says, branded her a “snowflake” and sent her and her family death threats, Amanda insisted: “I go into anything wanting to work hard. I have a strong work ethic, the fact that people think I’m lazy and ‘she didn’t know what she was letting herself in for’.
“Yes, I did, of course I did, I know what I was letting myself in, but I didn’t know I was letting myself in for that.”