Former Strictly star AJ has opened up about his initial fears after his girlfriend Abbie Quinnen suffered third-degree burns when an Instagram hack ended in disaster.
The 26-year-old now suffers flashbacks and feels mentally scarred by the terrifying ordeal – leaving Abbie to undergo various skin grafts as a result of the incident.
Abbie will be left with permanent scarring, AJ revealed, as he told The Sun: “There is gonna be small marks there but right now we’re just like everything’s going really, really well and that’s what we can always focus on.”
At the time of the incident AJ’s biggest worry for Abbie, who is also in the entertainment industry, was that she would be left with lifelong scars that would also affect her career.
However, now that Abbie’s recovery is well underway and looking incredibly positive, he’s astonished at how well the human body can heal.
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
AJ told the publication: “There are different areas, and there are different degrees of burn and she will have a small scar in certain areas.
“But, as with time, they will heal and other areas will heal. I think the most important thing was that the skin grafts worked.
“The surgeon that did it was very happy with the way that went and seeing the improvement from week to week.”
The beautiful blonde dancer and AJ were videoing a “life hack” to showcase a risky way of cutting a glass bottle in half to use as a vase.
In order to carry out the trick successfully, a rope is dunked into a flammable chemical which is placed around the bottle before a naked flame is ignited.
Tragically for the couple, the dangerous hack didn’t quite go to plan.
The bottle blew up, sending a fireball in Abbie’s direction, catching alight both her hair and clothing at their West London apartment on January 19.
Just two weeks after Christmas, doctors were working tirelessly to save Abbie’s face and arms from serious scarring.
After so far needing to have 20 hospital visits for skin grafts, AJ found himself worrying.
She has since needed three skin grafts and immediately raised fears for her career.
He explained that due to his and his girlfriend’s chosen profession their “looks” were something that they both use to gain work.
Trying to calm his girlfriend during the evening, he reassured Abbie that the “NHS would do everything in their power” to save her skin.
Having witnessed the traumatic fireball completely engulf his girlfriend, AJ expressed that he continues to have flashbacks.
AJ says he has been left mentally scarred by the accident, and says he gets flashbacks in his sleep and cannot watch TV shows with fire in them even two months on.
He added: “It is very traumatic. I can only speak for myself in this scenario.
“But definitely, certain nights I do wake up and think about what’s happened and especially if I’m watching TV, and the scenario happens on TV, which has a naked flame or something that is more towards that way.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
