Nicola Roberts has given an insight into what working with Giovanni Pernice on Strictly Come Dancing is really like when she was paired with him during the 2022 Christmas special.
Professional dancer Pernice, 33, is caught in a feud with actress Amanda Abbington, 51, after she claimed that appearing on the BBC show with him last year left her with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Sherlock star Abbington quit the dance competition siting "personal issues" and denied at the time that she had any falling out with the Italian native.
Since then, she has reportedly demanded copies of their rehearsal footage, which she claims will highlight his "tense" and "full-on" training methods which she feels were detrimental to her mental health.
Girls Aloud singer Roberts, 38, appeared to have had a different experience to Abbington, hailing Pernice as a "great teacher", however joking at times she "might have wanted to strangle him".
Speaking on The One Show in December 2022, the Sound of the Underground hit-maker said: "Gio is a great teacher – he's a perfectionist - as am I. The waltz is so technical and it's so different to anything I've done before.
"I don't necessarily like the learning process because I lose concentration and Gio is very 'again, again, again', but I was grateful because when I finally got to do the waltz I was prepared.
"And as much as during the rehearsal process I might have wanted to strangle him, I was glad that when I left the ballroom I thought I had done a good job of the waltz."
