The professional dancer didn’t appear during the 2024 series after an investigation into his behaviour on the show

Former Strictly Come Dancing pairing Giovanni Pernice and Debbie McGee

Former Strictly Come Dancing pairing Giovanni Pernice and Debbie McGee(Image: Giovanni Pernice Instagram)

Giovanni Pernice has shared a video showing his emotional reunion with one of his former Strictly Come Dancing co-stars who he says was one of a ‘few people’ who supported him last year.

As fans of the hit dance show are already aware, the professional dancer didn’t appear during the 2024 series after an investigation into his behaviour on the show was conducted before he was cleared of the most serious allegations.

The BBC apologised to Sherlock star Amanda Abbington as they upheld some of her complaints against her former dance partner during the 2023 series.

Giovanni then went on to be crowned the winner of the Italian version of the BBC One dance contest and America’s Dancing with the Stars alongside Bianca following the show’s final back in December.

But he has since returned to the UK for his tour, The Last Dance, which he has previously said will be his last tour – for now – and throughout has been sharing updates as he interacts with the crowds at each show.

On Monday night (February 24), Giovanni revealed he had a special guest in the audience as former Strictly dance partner Debbie McGee joined him.

In the clip posted to his Instagram Story, the dancer is seen with his arm around television, radio and stage performer as he told those in the audience: “Let me tell you one thing about this, well I could write a book about this wonderful human being because…”

Debbie interrupted as she grabbed the mic and said: “Not the naughty stories…” to which Giovanni quipped back: “Most of the naughty stories.”

(Image: Giovanni Pernice Instagram)

Making it a bit more serious, he went on: “This person here, we had an amazing time on Strictly Come Dancing and she’s one of the few people that when all of the things were happening, she stood by me and I definitely can call you a friend.”

The audience began to clap and cheer and an emotional Debbie kissed Giovanni on the cheek before they gave each other a telling look and he gave her a kiss on the cheek with a long embrace.

It comes after Giovanni said he thought “this is the end of my career” when the BBC launched an investigation into his teaching methods on Strictly. H

e told the Sunday Mirror at the end of last year: “I’m not going to lie, there were dark moments in terms of (me thinking) this is finished, this is the end of my career. That was one of my down moments. Sorry for my language but 2024 can f*** off. I’ve been looking forward to seeing the back of it.”

Giovanni added: “I know what I did – that kept me calm, because I knew the truth from the beginning. I was expecting and waiting that all of this would finish and come back with the results that I wanted it to be. I know what the truth is, I know who I am, so you just wait and move on with life.”