Breezing onto the dancefloor in a metallic ivory gown and gold stilettos, she waved to the camera and shimmied her shoulders as the band played.
With a kick of her leg and flick of her skirt, Shirley Ballas made her way over to the Strictly Come Dancing judges’ desk where she took her seat and threw her head back in laughter.
It was the biggest night of series; the annual Blackpool spectacular, and the BBC show’s head judge knew that millions would be tuning in from all over the country.
With her unwavering confidence – for which she is often criticised – the former Queen of Latin sat centre stage on Saturday night, poised and ready to offer her unfiltered critiques to this year’s remaining contestants.
But, just moments before her enthusiastic entrance, Shirley had suffered a life-threatening medical emergency when she’d choked on a fishbone – one of her team having to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre to dislodge it.
While such a dramatic incident might be reason to pull out of a live broadcast for any other television star, Shirley soldiered on, a smile plastered defiantly on her face and not a crease on her £575 Georgia Hardinge dress.
This was just the latest in a string of blows that she has suffered in her personal life in the last year, including the breakdown of her six-year relationship with Danny Taylor and the ill-health of her elderly mother.
But Shirley refuses to let her seemingly endless run of bad fortune and the barrage of criticism from viewers affect her role on the show and will do anything to preserve it, sources tell the Daily Mail.
Shirley Ballas, 65, revealed she almost didn’t make Saturday’s show due to the ‘terrifying’ incident
Danny Taylor and Shirley Ballas (pictured in 2022), who were in a relationship for six years, called it quits in 2024
‘Shirley lives and breathes the Strictly mantra “keep dancing”, there’s pretty much nothing that would make her skip an episode of the show,’ said a TV insider.
‘She’s had a rough ride in the 12 months but that just makes her more determined than ever to preserve her image and keep the Strictly ship as steady as possible.’
On screen, Shirley is the picture of ballroom glamour with an endless conveyer belt of designer dresses, perfectly blow-dried hair and smudge-free make-up.
But when she’s not at the BBC studios, the former dancer lives with and cares for her 88-year-old mother Audrey, who was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2022.
The pair reside in Shirley’s home in Dulwich, south London, but she recently admitted her fears for leaving her mother in order to go to work.
‘My mum’s a smoker and over these last three years, I’ve got to witness her being out of breath,’ she told BBC Radio Manchester earlier this week.
‘I’ve got to witness her being really poorly. I’ve been opposite her when she couldn’t get a breath and was choking because the airways closed.’
But her medical emergency, was just the latest in a string of blows in the last year including the ill-health of her mother and the breakdown of her relationship with Danny Taylor
In another Instagram post, she added: ‘Almost didn’t make it to the desk last night’
But despite the dramatic incident, she soldiered on and joined her fellow judges and hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on the dancefloor for the Strictly special
She added: ‘We only go out once a week now, it’ll be for two or three hours. She doesn’t care to go outside, she just prefers to be home which is kind of sad.’
While she’s at work, Shirley often enlists her personal assistant to look after Audrey and he sends her text updates on how she’s doing.
‘I worry about her all the time,’ she said.
‘Often now when I am away at work, my lovely PA looks after her. But he will send me messages about how she has got on top of a stool and is cleaning the ornaments.
‘She got so ill last winter that I could not go to work.’
Despite her flirtatious interactions with male contestants on Strictly, Shirley has admitted her own love life is non-existent following her break-up with Danny at the end of last year.
Following failed marriages to dancers Sammy Stopford and Corky Ballas, Shirley had thought she’d met her soulmate in the bit-part actor.
But things came to a head when the performer, who at 52 is 13 years her junior, ‘vanished’ on her 64th birthday, triggering memories of her brother’s suicide some years previously.
When Danny reappeared the following day and acted like nothing had happened, she knew that the relationship was over.
‘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.
Shirley put on a brave face for the Strictly live show, but admitted on social media the ‘terrifying’ incident has left her wanting to take a First Aid course
‘I just thought “this can’t go on”. Not just for my sake, but my mum too.’
While Danny has predictably moved on with another woman, Shirley has remained defiantly single and has said she has no desire to start up another romantic relationship.
‘I neither want nor need a partner,’ she told Best magazine earlier this month.
‘I’ve been divorced twice and been single since splitting from my last boyfriend – Danny Taylor.
‘I’ve come to realise that I’m not here to be in love. I’m not on this earth for that – my purpose is to teach dance and to help people find joy in that and reach their potential.’
She added: ‘Maybe I’ve had too many losses to want to let people get too close – my father left when I was two, my brother took his own life, my two marriages broke down.’
Shirley has also had to deal with relentless attacks on her appearance, character and dance expertise by trolls who target her every week while Strictly is on.
For years she has been forced to defend herself against diehard fans of the show, who have criticised her for what they perceive to be ‘biased’ scoring towards male contestants.
In 2023, the abuse went so far that she admitted she had become scared to leave the house.
‘I’ve had people draw coffins with me in it with somebody with a spade that said, ‘Die you b****,’” she told Olivia Attwood on her ITV documentary about trolling.
‘I never relax. It has changed my life completely I would say.’
So, when Shirley found that she ‘couldn’t breathe’ for 20 minutes after a fishbone became stuck in her throat ahead of Saturday’s show, it came at the end of chaotic year.
She was ‘terrified’ during the ordeal, she said, and if it wasn’t for her hair and make-up artist knowing the Heimlich manoeuvre, it could have had a tragic ending.
‘It got lodged in my throat, and my wonderful Jane, who has been with me for nine years, did the Heimlich manoeuvre, and we got the bone out,’ she said.
‘But for 20 minutes there, it was lodged and I couldn’t breathe, so it was terrifying.’
She added: ‘I really thought that was it.’
After a year of heartbreak and health scares, one thing is for certain: It’ll take more than a fishbone and few cruel comments to get Shirley Ballas to quit Strictly.
