ABBIE QUINNEN can at last look in the mirror with a confident beam once more, 15 months on from her horror fireball accident. The 24-year-old dancer and girlfriend of former Strictly pro AJ Pritchard reckons posing for a Sun on Sunday photoshoot has helped her “feel sexy again”. She says: “I have accepted my reflection […]
ABBIE QUINNEN can at last look in the mirror with a confident beam once more, 15 months on from her horror fireball accident.
The 24-year-old dancer and girlfriend of former Strictly pro AJ Pritchard reckons posing for a Sun on Sunday photoshoot has helped her “feel sexy again”.
She says: “I have accepted my reflection in the mirror now.
“It did take a while, and I am slowly accepting my scars.
“Every day I keep telling myself that over time they will look better — patience is key.
“I have to remember my burns don’t define me. They’ve just shown a story of what’s happened to me. I hope I can see my scars as part of me.
Read more on Abbie Quinnen
“I’ve been dancing with AJ in costumes where you can see my scars. I forget they are there, and that feels incredible.
“It’s taken a while but I do feel sexy again.”
Abbie suffered third-degree burns after a social media stunt with AJ in January last year went wrong.
They had hoped to cut a glass bottle in half by dipping a rope in a flammable chemical, wrapping it round the bottle and lighting a flame. But the stunt intended for TikTok ended in disaster as Abbie got scorched.
She suffered burns to her face, neck, shoulder and arm and had to undergo traumatic skin grafts.
But last week she received the good news that she will not need further surgery.
Abbie says: “I saw my surgeon and it was so amazing, I’ve not seen her for ten months. She was so impressed about how my scars were looking.
“The scarring has healed really well and she doesn’t need to perform another surgery, which is the best news ever.”
This boost spurred the star to pose for the cameras in our stunning lingerie shoot.
More than a year after we first revealed her ordeal, Abbie adds: “I looked so ill for such a long time.
“But now I’m getting back to my old self, and doing something like this has given me a confidence boost.
“It took a lot for me to do it. I was very unsure how I was going to feel on the day.”
She now plans to perform on AJ’s tour later this year which he is doing with his younger brother, dancer and former Love Islander Curtis, 26. It is called AJ & Curtis’ Big Night Out.
Abbie has also set her sights on landing a role in the West End.
But she reveals AJ — who took part in I’m A Celebrity in 2020 — was also left badly shaken by the fireball accident and the couple have both needed therapy.
Recalling the fire, she says: “It’s in no way his fault but AJ really struggled and felt extremely guilty for a very long time.
“I don’t think that he will ever forgive himself.
“So talking to someone really helped — as did talking to each other, talking our feelings through.
“We’ve been through every-thing that happened and how I feel right now, and how he feels.
I looked so ill for such a long time. But now I’m getting back to my old self, and doing something like this has given me a confidence boost.
“We’re really, really strong and we’ve got that understanding with each other.” The pair are now so close that wedding bells could soon be ringing.
Abbie says: “I love AJ. I’d love to get married and have a family with him but you’ll have to ask AJ when he’s going to propose.
“It’s every girl’s dream to be asked. It could be me asking him, though.
“Imagine if I did it on stage during the tour. He would be so shocked I don’t think he’d be able to carry on — he would pass out.”
Abbie is proud to have become a positive role model for girls who struggle with body image.
She says: “Since my accident I’ve got so much more fight. I’m pushing myself to be an even better dancer than I was before, as well as being physically and mentally stronger.
“It was a near-death experience and that makes you look at your life in a different way.
“I had no idea I was ever going to get my full range of movement back, or look the same again. But I was so strict with the recovery.
“I did everything the doctors told me, from wearing my compression vest to moisturising four times a day.”
She adds: “I had so many messages coming in from young girls and their mums thanking me for speaking out, all saying they were going to look up to me and watch my journey.
“It’s taught me you can get over things. And I definitely feel more confident now.”
But Abbie recalls the skin grafts as the worst part of her recovery.
Since my accident I’ve got so much more fight. I’m pushing myself to be an even better dancer than I was before, as well as being physically and mentally stronger.
She says: “I would cry all night because I was so petrified of going off to have them, being given anaesthetic. I was so worried that I wouldn’t wake up. It was horrible.
“I felt so sorry for AJ. He had to deal with me, he’d be pushing me through the door. It was traumatic for us both but I feel lucky to have had him by my side.”
On top of everything else, Abbie even had to deal with online trolling.
She says: “I was at my lowest and people were writing awful things.
“I remember someone saying, ‘Don’t go near your niece or nephew, you are going to scare them to death with your burns’. Imagine someone saying something like that? But now everyone is rooting for me, which has been really lovely.”
Abbie moved in with AJ, 27, and Curtis at the start of lockdown, though Curtis has since moved out.
The trio also ran the London Landmarks half-marathon together last week.
Abbie finished in an impressive one hour, 49 minutes and 41 seconds.
She says: “I’m still on a high, I don’t know how I did it that quick. I’m just so proud of myself and of AJ and Curtis.”
Curtis was struggling with a bad back and Abbie says: “He didn’t get to do it as quick as us. I felt so sorry for him. I nearly cried when he hopped over the line at the end.
“He moved out of AJ’s flat and he’s been sleeping on a blow-up bed on the floor. I saw him a couple of days before the run and he was in agony with his back. He hobbled for ten miles.
“I was living with both of them and those two together are hilarious.
“They argue all the time but it’s also so funny watching them. AJ is a neat freak so if Curtis’s room was messy it would be World War Three.”
But with Curtis out of the home, Abbie feels as if AJ is now “picking on me”. She says with a laugh: “I leave things everywhere and he does nitpick. He has to have all the jars and everything turned round the right way.
Read More on The Sun
“If I open the cereal wrong he’s like, ‘Why did you open it like that?’”
But they have clearly had a bigger battle to fight, and Abbie proudly declares: “We are going to get through this together.”
