Shirley Ballas reveals the moment she knew ‘it couldn’t go on’ with her former toy boy fiancé Danny Taylor after he vanished on her birthday.
The Strictly Come Dancing head judge, 64, announced she had split from her long-term partner Danny in November after six years together.
She has now revealed how his disappearance confirmed the end of their relationship as it brought back thoughts of her brother David who had died by suicide in 2003
Shirley explained 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 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.
Shirley Ballas reveals the moment she knew ‘it couldn’t go on’ with her former toy boy fiancé Danny Taylor after he vanished on her birthday
The Strictly Come Dancing head judge, 64, announced she had split from her long-term partner Danny in November after six years together (pictured together in 2022)
She has now revealed how his disappearance confirmed the end of their relationship as it brought back thoughts of her brother David (pictured) who had died by suicide in 2003
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.’
Her interview comes after she confessed her love life is a ‘disaster’, after splitting from Danny.
The twice-married, four-times engaged Strictly star has said the loves of her life are her son, Mark, 38, and mum, Audrey.
Speaking on the Great Company podcast with Jamie Laing earlier this year, Shirley confirmed her split from her fiance, who she got engaged to in 2021 after they met while appearing in panto together in late 2018.
She said: ‘Currently, I’ve just split with my boyfriend. My relationships have been a disaster, all the way along the line.
Speaking to the Mirror, Shirley explained that she was with her mother Audrey, 87, (pictured left) on her 64th birthday when she got a call to say her then fiance Danny was missing
‘All those memories came flooding back…it triggered all these emotions,’ she told publication. She spent the next few hours trying to track Danny down
This was the moment she realised that she could no longer have someone in her life who could cause her such agony (pictured with David)
‘What turns me off is a liar, somebody who says they’ll be there and isn’t.
‘But what I am truly grateful for is that I still have my mother, and that she lives with me, and I get these precious moments with her.
‘Because my mother is the only thing that’s been a staple in my life. No friend, no marriage, no nothing.
‘You know, all I keep saying at the end of the day is I’m blessed to have had my son, and without the journey I took, I wouldn’t have him, and then I wouldn’t have my grandson.
‘So, it’s fate, if you want to, it’s directions that you choose.’
Shirley was first engaged at the age of 16 to her then-ballroom partner Nigel Tiffany.
She went on to marry her dance partner Sammy Stopford when she was 18, but the union lasted four years before she ran away to America with Texan dancer Corky Ballas.
They tied the knot in 1985 and welcomed son Mark the following year. The pair split in 2007.
