- Have YOU got a story? Email [email protected]
Shirley Ballas revealed that she has no interest in dating after her ex Danny Taylor did some ‘quite unforgivable things.’
The Strictly Come Dancing judge, 65, first met Danny in 2018 with the pair going on to date for six years, but during their relationship she said she was left ‘constantly worrying.’
Speaking in a new interview, Shirley opened up about why she called off their engagement and her plans for the future.
The TV personality, who’s been married twice and engaged four times, has now said she has no intention to ‘call anyone a boyfriend.’
She explained how Danny often ‘disappeared’ which triggered awful memories of when her brother David died by suicide aged 44 in 2003.
‘I was always frightened he was going to take his own life. He was disappearing all the time,’ she said.
Shirley Ballas revealed that she has no interest in dating after her ex Danny Taylor did some ‘quite unforgivable things’
Shirley told The Times: ‘It just got to a point where it was so upsetting every time it happened, that I just decided to call it a day. It’s better to be on my own than constantly worrying, stressful, about somebody else.
‘He’s done some things that are really under the table and quite unforgivable. But I’m ok at the moment. No dates. I don’t want to call anyone a boyfriend or a this or a that.’
Shirley was first engaged at the age of 16 to her then-ballroom partner Nigel Tiffany.
Shirley’s first husband was ballroom dancer Sammy Stopford, to whom she was married for four years in the 80s.
She went on to marry her dance partner Sammy Stopford when she was 19, but the union lasted only four years before she ran away to America with Texan dancer Corky Ballas.
They married in 1985 and welcomed son Mark the following year. Together they won many major dance championships before splitting in 2007.
She joined Strictly as head judge in 2017, won viewers over immediately with her expert knowledge, strict standards and Scouse warmth, and met Danny in pantomime the following year.
Shirley confirmed she’d split from Taylor after six years in late 2024, describing it as a ‘disaster.’
She said: ‘He’s done some things that are really under the table and quite unforgivable. But I’m ok at the moment. No dates’ (pictured together in 2022)
She later revealed the moment she knew ‘it couldn’t go on’ and how his disappearance confirmed the end of their relationship.
Shirley said that she was with her mother Audrey, 87, on her 64th birthday when she got a call to say her then-fiancé Danny was missing.
She previously told The Mirror: ‘All those memories came flooding back… it triggered all these emotions.’
She spent the next few hours trying to track Danny down, calling around all his friends and family.
By 2am in the early hours of the following morning she could see that he had read her worried messages concerning his whereabouts.
But Shirley was left infuriated after Danny reappeared the next day and carried on as if nothing had happened.
This was the moment she realised that she could no longer have someone in her life who could cause her such agony.
‘I will never forget that day until the day I die. I remember looking across in the middle of the night and I saw my mother was just so upset, reliving all of her trauma,’ she said.
‘I just thought “this can’t go on”. Not just for my sake, but my mum too.’
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636
Read the full article here
