EXCLUSIVE: Peter Andre defends ‘beautiful’ former Strictly partner Janette Manrara and ‘gentleman’ Giovanni Pernice in the wake of bullying and abuse claims – and insists scandal is ‘going too far’

Peter Andre has come to the defense of the dancers on Strictly Come Dancing in the wake of the ongoing show scandal, insisting it is ‘going too far’. The BBC series has been engulfed in a growing crisis in recent weeks, with multiple star accusing their professional partners of abuse and bullying during their time on the show.

Peter, 51, appeared on the show in 2015 with Janette Manrara as his partner, and took to his Instagram on Wednesday to weigh in on the scandal, claiming it wasn’t ‘fair’ to the dancers, and they should be ‘cut a break’. And I know it was only one series that I was on but people like Janette Manrara who are the nicest, most beautiful people and they’re getting dragged into things like this.’

Peter continued: ‘Of course if someone did something bad and someone hurt somebody, I can understand that, of course that’s unacceptable. ‘But because I was there and people like Giovanni, they were always a gentleman to me , and Anton – they were lovely to me and not just me, but the way I saw them with people.

‘And I think that when Janette’s name got dragged in too, I’m like come on guys she’s beautiful and Aljaž… I don’t know know.’ He concluded: ‘Yes of course if there’s any misconduct that they have to find out, but I just think they’re dragging everyone’s names in and I just don’t think it’s fair. That’s just my personal opinion. I think that some of them just need to be cut a break.’

In the caption of his post, he added: ‘My thoughts on @bbcstrictly @jmanrara @aljazskorjanec @giovannipernice @mrantondubeke. ‘Although I don’t know what happens in everybody’s training room I can only speak about what I saw and experienced. ‘It is however important that people speak up if they feel that something was wrong and important that they are heard. When Janette and others got dragged into it too, I couldn’t help but wonder if this is going too far before any investigation.’