Strictly Come Dancing in chaos as star falls sick with ‘vicious’ illness
STRICTLY Come Dancing star Amanda Abbington has fallen ill just before the series begins.
The Sherlock star has been struck down with food poisoning and has been forced to halt rehearsals ahead of the launch.
Amanda, 51, shared her health woes on Instagram and said: “Food poisoning. Particularly vicious one.
“Any tips on how to feel back to normal [would be] greatly appreciated.”
The stars of this year’s competition met earlier this month to get started in training.
The group, including Coronation Street star Ellie Leach, EastEnders actor Bobby will be officially introduced alongside their dance partners on Saturday 23 September.
The BBC show – hosted by Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly – will run for 13 weeks and finish on Saturday December 16.
Some fans slammed the line-up on social media when it was revealed Amanda had joined the show after she was accused of being transphobic, which she denied.
It came after she tweeted: “I lost quite a few followers for saying that a semi-naked man in thigh high boots dancing in a highly sexualised way shouldn’t be performing in front of babies and it tells me everything I need to know about where society is heading.
“How do you not agree with me on this?”
In another trans row, she wrote: “If you don’t actually have proper, real breast milk in your breasts, just don’t try and breastfeed your baby.”
Amanda split with 51-year-old actor Martin Freeman — father of her two children — in 2016.
She started a romance with escapologist Jonathan Goodwin, 42, who was left paralysed in 2021 after a stunt on America’s Got Talent: Extreme went wrong.
Amanda played Mary Morstan in BBC1’s Sherlock from 2014 to 2017.
She was the on-screen wife of Martin’s Dr Watson, sidekick of supersleuth Sherlock Holmes, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.