The actress might have the support of her partner and son, but her daughter is backing another Strictly contestant this year.
Actress Amanda Abbington is one of the 15 celebrities in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing line-up.
The Mr Selfridge star will compete against the likes of EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier, TV favourite Les Dennis, paralympian Jody Cundy, comedian Eddie Kadi, legendary presenter and journalist Angela Rippon and former Emmerdale actor Adam Thomas.
But while her partner and son will be in the audience supporting her this weekend as she performs at her first live show alongside her professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice, she tells us that her daughter will be backing another contestant this year – Love Island star and documentary maker Zara McDermott.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, she said: “My daughter’s going to a party with her boyfriend and my son was going to come and sit in the audience and support his mum.
“She only wants to come to meet Giovanni. I said to her, ‘Do you support me?’ She said, ‘No, I support Giovanni and Zara [McDermott].’”
The Strictly Come Dancing 2023 pairings were recently revealed and Zara, who many will recognise from taking part in season 4 of Love Island, will be dancing with Graziano Di Prima.
Read more:
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On how her family will react to her dancing, the 51-year-old continued: “My mum’s gonna cry. I know she’ll cry. She’s never seen me do this. She’s seen me do ballet when I was a kid, but that was years and years and years ago. So she’s going to cry.
“My dad might have a heart attack. He might get so excited and keel over.”
Amanda’s comments come after she opened up about handling scrutiny ahead of Strictly, following some fans threatening to boycott the show due to her casting.
“I think you can choose to manage it, I do,” she said. “I think you can kind of manage how much you want to give away.
“Me and ex-partner [Martin Freeman] never had our children shown out in public up until the age where they wanted to do it. So I think you can manage it yourself and decide how much you want to show people and, like, how much you want to let them in.”
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday 23rd September at 6:15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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