Get the latest gossip

There's no way back for me on Strictly, heartbroken Giovanni tells KATIE HIND, as he opens up on his romance with an older woman, and reveals his sweet message to British fans...

For so long, his smile was replaced by a furrowed brow. Now, Giovanni Pernice's famous beam is back. At last, as the Strictly star reveals to me in this exclusive interview, his life is back on the up.

Because not only has he recently triumphed on the Italian version of Strictly, Ballando Con Le Stelle, but he also met a new love on the show: his dance partner Bianca Guaccero. Dressed down in a grey tracksuit, a baseball cap and his signature diamond earring, the Giovanni I meet is a much happier one than the last time we met in October, shortly after the results of the BBC investigation. Clearly, the subject of a return is something that upsets Giovanni's hard-fought-for equilibrium – not least because, as I point out, he has millions of fans in the UK who will be saddened to hear that the schism created after Amanda's accusations looks, for now, to be a permanent one.

Get the Android app