We have, over the course of the entertainment industry getting bigger and bigger, seen celebrities do all kinds of things, showing all kinds of hidden talents just to keep the audience engaged. The British dance reality show called Strictly Come Dancing is a show that pairs celebrities with dance professionals and brings them on stage for a showdown.
Created by Fenia Vardanis, Richard Hopkins, and Karen Smith, this BBC show is a continuation of the Come Dancing series that focuses mainly on ballroom and Latin dance and has, over the years, inspired the making of close to sixty spinoffs of the original show.
Airing since 2004, the show has put out twenty-one seasons, with the last one having ended very recently. Presently, the show is being hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, with Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke, and Shirley Ballas being a part of the judging panel.
The twenty-first season aired in September, premiering its finale episode on December 16th, 2023. Fans finally know out of all of the celebrities and choreographers pairing took the winning title home. Actor and model Bobby Brazier and his partner, Dianne Buswell, along with actor and performer, Layton Williams and his choreographer Nikita Kuzmin were announced to be the runners-up of the season.
This meant that the Coronation Street actress, Ellie Leach, and her partner Vito Coppola came out on top as the ultimate winners of the season. This series of show, Strictly Come Dancing, was especially famous among fans for its great casting of celebrities, proper competition between them, and the overall warmth of the season had fans wanting more.
But while fans and the winners of the title enjoyed their moment, there were a few participants on the show who had to withdraw their names from the competition. One of them being, Amanda Abbington. Let us tell you all about why the actress ended up leaving the show.
The Reason Behind Amanda’s Departure
It was only week five of the competition and the season was just getting interesting when the producers of the show put a notice letting the fans of the show and the actress, that Amanda Abbington would be removing her name from the list of competitors this season.
Before this news was made public, the actress had been absent from the previous episode, leaving fans confused and wondering if she would continue. There had been many who had been excitedly waiting for Abbington and her professional dance partner, Giovanni Pernice to showcase their performances but it turned out, that the actress had announced her permanent departure from the show.
She cited the reasons for it to be ‘personal’, leaving fans all the more curious. The episode of Strictly: It Takes Two, which aired after this notice addressed her absence from the show but not for long. Presenter Fleur East read a statement that suggested that Amanda had willingly and consciously decided to withdraw her name and that the show hoped the best for her.
After sending her best wishes and love, the show continued with the performance of the day. After the episode was aired, Abbington took to her social media, and to reply to the show’s mention of her wrote to fans for further clarification.
She wrote that leaving the show permanently was a tough decision and she was sad that she could not go ahead with her fellow participants. She told fans she had fun on the show and even thanked the staff and crew of the show for being so kind to her.
Once again, she wrapped her statement after telling fans that there were some ‘personal reasons’ that did not allow her to continue appearing on the show anymore. The Sherlock actress has since not commented on or elaborated as to what the personal reasons could have been, leaving the fans slightly curious about the actual reason behind her departure.
