Strictly star Shirley Ballas declares her love life a ‘disaster’ while confirming split from boyfriend-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas has declared her love life a ‘disaster’ (Picture: Ken McKay/ ITV/ Shutterstock)

Shirley Ballas has labelled her love life a ‘disaster’ after confirming her split from partner Danny Taylor.

Last year the Strictly Come Dancing head judge, 64, revealed she no longer had plans to marry Danny, 51.

The couple had been together since 2019 after first meeting while working on a pantomime production.

Danny is a trained ballroom dancer who has also appeared in soaps including Brookside and The Bill.

Although they got engaged in 2021, two years later Shirley confirmed they’d called off wedding plans as she didn’t want to walk down the aisle again and had ‘changed her mind’ about marriage.

Despite staying together after that, and trying to make a long-distance relationship work, Shirley has now said they’ve split.

She’s confirmed her split from partner of six years Danny Taylor (Picture: Karwai Tang/ WireImage)

‘Currently, I’ve just split with my boyfriend,’ she said.

‘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 added when speaking to Jamie Laing on his Great Company podcast.

Shirley, who has been married twice and engaged four times, went on to share the loves of her life were her son Mark, 38, and her 87-year-old mum, Audrey.

‘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,’ she explained.

Shirley called off their engagement last year (Picture: S Meddle/ ITV/ Rex)

‘So, it’s fate, if you want to, it’s directions that you choose.’

Shirley’s first engagement came when she was just 16 years old to her then-ballroom dancing partner Nigel Tiffany.

However, after that relationship ended, two years later she married her dance partner Sammy Stopford.

But after four years together Shirley then left her husband for American dancer Corky Ballas, whom she married in 1985 and had son Mark Ballas with a year later.

After that relationship ended in 2007 amid rumours of infidelity on his side, Shirley’s next high-profile relationship was just over a decade later when she met Danny.

Shirley shares son Mark Ballas with ex-husband Corky Ballas (Picture: Jerod Harris/ Getty Images)

Reflecting on her love life, Shirley said she had ‘a couple of boyfriends’ before her last relationship but they all ‘ended in disaster’.

Looking back to her parent’s relationship, Shirley believes their issues clearly impacted her.

When she was just two, Shirley’s dad walked out on the family, with the TV star saying she ‘never had that example of that family environment’ and was ‘not the most trusting person at all’ which she attributed to the ‘ups and downs’ of her childhood.

Shirley said her dad ‘never did anything’, which she thinks made her ‘hardened on the inside’.

After the death of her brother David in 2003 Shirley reconnected with her father however he died aged 83 in 2021, with Shirley saying she is ‘still working on just letting go the time’ he wasn’t there and present.

She also spoke about feeling blessed for her close relationship with her son and mum Audrey (Picture: Ricky Vigil M/ GC Images)

Despite her recent relationship break-down Shirley said she felt ‘blessed’ for her close relationship with her son, who lives in America but calls her every day, and her mum, whom she lives with.

It was first reported Shirley and Danny had split last month, with a source telling The Sun: ‘She gave her all to that relationship and in the end came to the realisation that it wasn’t going anywhere.’

They explained that while Shirley ‘made a lot of effort travelling up and down the country’ to support his partner’s theatre and panto work, ‘distance played a part’ in their split.

When speaking about calling off her engagement last year, Shirley explained that she wanted to do more travelling with her mother too.

The 2024 Strictly Come Dancing finale airs on Saturday at 6pm on BBC One.

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