Strictly stars Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke
Between health scares and finding new love, Strictly Come Dancing’s Shirley Ballas knows that life is about taking the rough with the smooth
They call it ‘Doctor Showbiz’. The impetus that makes performers and artistes carry on – if not regardless – then as soon as humanly possible after sickness or surgery. Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas is under the imaginary medic’s orders at the moment. On October 29, she’s scheduled to have an operation to remove her breast implants yet she’s determined to work through any post-op pain and take her place on the Strictly judging panel as usual on November 2.
“My doctor says I have recuperation of a week but I want to do Strictly on the Saturday night,” she has said. “It’s not like I have to dance and do the cha cha cha or the samba.”
Shirley’s reasons for surgery have neither to do with vanity nor aesthetics. Following a routine mammogram, doctors commented that there was no guarantee that technology would pick up any abnormalities behind the implants.
‘Motsi has got to be the funniest person I’ve ever met. Her sense of humour and mine really go well together. She judges without fear or favour’
As she has a family history of cancer – although, not in her case, breast cancer – she has decided to have the implants removed.
Speaking recently she said: “There are rumours that the scar tissues cause chronic fatigue which I have suffered with, even over the last year. Usually I don’t get tired and I’m like an Energizer bunny. But if they take out the scar tissue it would involve bigger surgery and perhaps a reconstruction. But I don’t want any implants in.”
Shirley has always been very honest as to why she had implants in the first place; she says it was due to a lack of confidence. “If I could go back to my younger self, I would say, ‘You’re fine as you are, and God makes people in different ways – we’re all different shapes and sizes.’ But I think when you have people telling you different things about yourself, it chips away – and you don’t believe anything you’ve got is nice or pretty. I got implants more because I was searching to find something that was beautiful, when perhaps I didn’t realise it’s inner beauty that counts the most.”
She’s right, of course, but at the moment Shirley’s outer beauty cannot be ignored. In this, her third series of Strictly, she is positively glowing. It can’t be coincidence that since February of this year, she has a new man in her life – actor, comedy writer and producer Danny Taylor whom she met while doing panto in her native Liverpool last year. The couple are due to appear together in panto again this year – in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Darlington Hippodrome.
“I just love that man,” Shirley says of Danny who is 14 years her junior. “He is ‘The One’. We have a lot in common and we laugh all the time. He is part of the reason why I readjusted my life, moving to London from Los Angeles. I never, ever thought in my lifetime I would meet a man who is just such a really, really good man. He’s definitely restored some confidence in me. It’s hard to find somebody who’s compatible with you. I feel like I’ve come full circle and it’s great to have found him after being single for so long. He's kind, caring, understanding and loving. I'm above Cloud Nine. I have to get up every
day and pinch myself because I have such a remarkable boyfriend and I never thought I’d ever meet someone like that in my entire life.”
For Shirley, 2019 has been a truly vintage year. Speaking recently she said: “This has been the best year of my life ever, other than giving birth to my son (Mark, now 33).”
Shirley (59) feels that age shouldn’t be a barrier to beginning to date again. “Many over-50s get in a comfort zone, they don’t want to bother with dating. But it’s worth bothering!”
So, would Shirley, who has been married twice before, consider tying the knot for a third time?
“I would marry him tomorrow, if he asked me. If this is what love is, I have never experienced it before! I met him in late November 2018 and he was going through a difficult time and we became friends first. We did not get together as a couple until February.”
Workwise, Shirley says that while she misses former Strictly judge Darcey Bussell, she’s delighted at how well Motsi Mabuse is fitting in.
‘My doctor says I will have recuperation of a week but I want to do Strictly on the Saturday night’
“She is beautiful inside and out and she has got to be the funniest person I’ve ever met,” is Shirley’s verdict. “Her sense of humour and my sense of humour really go well together. She judges without fear or favour – it’s always a question about her sister and her being in the show but I know her integrity and her family and it’s just second to none. She’s absolutely amazing.”
As, indeed, is Shirley…
■ Strictly Come Dancing is on Saturday evenings on BBC1 with the results show on Sundays and It Takes Two is week days on BBC2.