Shirley Ballas breaks silence on split from fiancé Danny Taylor as she makes bittersweet confession
Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas, 64, has confirmed her split from fiancé Danny Taylor, describing her love life as a “disaster”.
Taylor, 51, and Ballas first met while appearing together in a Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime in 2018.
The couple got engaged in 2021 after spending lockdown together, during which Ballas said she “got to know the bones of him”.
Taylor, like Ballas, is a trained ballroom dancer who has also worked as an actor, primarily in theatre roles.
The couple attempted to maintain a long-distance relationship, with Ballas making efforts to support Taylor’s theatre and pantomime work across the country.
The professional dancer recently opened up about the end of her six-year relationship during an appearance on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast.
She admitted: “Currently, I’ve just split with my boyfriend. My relationships have been a disaster all the way along the line.
“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.”
She reflected on her past relationships: “Could I have made this marriage work? Should I have stayed here? Should I have done…”
The break-up comes after the couple called off their wedding plans last year, with Ballas previously telling OK! magazine that marriage was “off the table”.
A source told The Sun that despite Ballas’s dedication to travelling up and down the country, “distance played a part” in their split.
Ballas’s romantic history includes multiple marriages and engagements, beginning when she was just 16 years old with her first fiancé, ballroom dancing partner Nigel Tiffany.
At 18, she married dance partner Sammy Stopford, though the marriage lasted only four years.
She then wed American dancer Corky Ballas in 1985, with whom she had her son Mark. The marriage ended in 2007 after 22 years.
The Strictly judge attributes her relationship struggles to her unstable childhood, noting her father’s absence from an early age.
The dance professional maintains a close relationship with her US-based son Mark, who calls her daily.
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“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,” she added.
Despite her love life being a “disaster” Ballas has continued to love and grow her career after she was made head judge on Strictly Come Dancing back in 2017.