I'm A Celebrity's AJ Pritchard's girlfriend Abbie Quinnen recalls terrifying death threat that left her in 'extreme danger'

This sounds terrifying

AJ Pritchard Abbie Quinnen
(Image credit: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

AJ Pritchard's girlfriend Abbie Quinnen has revealed how her life was put in "extreme danger" after a hitman was offered £20,000 to kill her.

Speaking for the first time about her terrifying ordeal, the dancer recalled how she had received a death threat earlier this year when she and AJ were appearing in pantomime together.

Abbie said she was told in January by a friend that someone on the dark web was offering up to £20,000 to end her life. Despite reporting the matter to the police, the culprit was never found.

"It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me," she said after explaining how she needed to have personal security after the would-be attacker was reportedly given a list of dates and places where she would be performing.

"I didn’t know what to do," she added to The Sun on Sunday. "I told AJ. He was like, 'I can’t believe this is happening'. My heart literally dropped and I remember my legs were shaking. You honestly see this stuff on movies and you never would expect it to happen to you. We went to the police.

She added: "My family were shocked too. I did play it down to them slightly as I didn’t want them to come running to where I was."

Venues were also alerted during the AJ Live Tour in March, with Abbie beefing up her own personal security. "It was a crazy time, but I am very grateful we did put in that extra protection."

AJ’s younger brother, former Love Island star Curtis Pritchard, was also on the AJ Live tour. He said of the threat: "It was a scary situation and I know when we went onto the AJ Live tour we had to let every single venue that we went to know that this had taken place.

"We had to make them aware of the situation that your life had been threatened and you could possibly be in extreme danger and we had to bring in extra support and security."

Jenni McKnight is a beauty, lifestyle and entertainment journalist and a regular contributor to woman&home, having previously worked as Acting Senior Content Editor of our former sister site, CelebsNow. She has also written for HELLO! Magazine, GoodToKnow, the Daily Mirror and Yahoo!