With the release of her gripping new book Best Foot Forward, Shirley Ballas opens up to the Mirror about the end of her relationship with Danny Taylor for the first time.
Shirley Ballas recalls the precise moment when the world sank. Her phone suddenly lit up as she snuggled up with her 87-year-old mother Audrey at 9 p.m. on the day of her 64th birthday.
It was a relative of her fiance Danny Taylor telling her that he’d gone missing, his phone was off and his family were very worried about him. Suddenly she was engulfed by the harrowing thoughts of her brother David who had tragically taken his own life, in 2003, aged 44.
She chimes in quietly, “All those memories came flooding back… it triggered all these emotions.” She spent the next few hours frantically looking for Danny, calling all of his friends and family, before giving her number to the police, who were also concerned about the circumstances.
She noticed that Danny had read her Whatsapps at 2 a.m. However, Danny returned the following day and continued as if nothing had happened, causing him to grow angry. She realized almost immediately that she couldn’t have someone who could end her suffering once more.
“From the moment I die, I will never forget that day.” She says, “I can tell you that my mother was just so upset and replaying all of her trauma when I looked across in the middle of the night.” I initially believed that this couldn’t continue. Not just for my sake, but also for my mother.
Strictly Come Dancing star Shirley is opening up to the Mirror as she prepares to release her incredible new memoir, Best Foot Forward. And talking to the warm-hearted star, it’s clear the night of her birthday has left an indelible mark.
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Shirley recalls how much she still loved him but felt she couldn’t continue to do so. It’s all very depressing, they say.
She and Danny, both 13, met while performing panto together in 2018, and Danny is 13 years younger. In Jack and the Beanstalk in Liverpool, the TV star was playing Mother Nature and Danny was the evil Fleshcreep. The pair had been dating for four and a half years. She acknowledges that after getting engaged in 2021, she quickly fell head over heels for him. Even the wedding rings were purchased by her.
“It was obvious how much I cherished that man,” she said. And he entered my life when I had a great deal of need, she explains. He was such a kind person. What’s the nicest way to say this, though? There were red flags along the line that I chose to ignore, but it only got to the point where the relationship was becoming increasingly difficult for me.
If there was a disagreement or heated discussion between them, Shirley claims that Danny was a “drifter by nature.” They would not talk for days. She claims it was similar to her father, who frequently fought off with her during her early years.
Things she once found endearing, like not knowing when his train arrived at her front door or arriving at her house with a broken suitcase, quickly started to deteriorate. She describes in the book how she “thinks that’s how I should show him I loved him” by giving him gifts.
So he received the “best of the best” items like custom-made clothing, Gucci shoes, Mont Blanc cufflinks, gorgeous holidays, and a Mini Coupé. Since he wasn’t making a living, she even hired him as her temporary resident during Covid.
We weren’t progressing together anymore, and she says, “I’m already worried about things that are going on in his life,” and she’s growing even more concerned. I simply needed some tranquility.
After splitting following that fateful night, communication between the two of them has been sparse. They exchange the odd text message but it feels that Shirley has been doing the heavy-lifting on that front. “We still haven’t seen each other face to face since that night, which I’ve asked for many times,” she says. “I’m a person who needs closure, and it’s just never closed. I always think it’s nice to sit in a room, because when people write text messages, you don’t really know the tone.”
Unsurprisingly, Shirley admits she’s not keen to rush into another relationship, if at all. She has been married twice before. She tied the knot with her dance partner Sammy Stopford in 1980 but divorced after four years. Then there was a fiery marriage to another dancer Corky Ballas with whom she has a son, Mark.
Due to allegations of infidelity, it ended in 2007. She briefly engaged to her first dance partner, Nigel Tiffany, at the age of 16, and they are still close friends today.
She says, “I don’t think I’ll ever have another relationship, but it would have to be with someone who was much calmer and saw our growth go forward.” That doesn’t mean that I didn’t adore Danny during those six years we spent together. I simply didn’t really have a choice.
She admits in the book that she feels “incomplete and a little lost” despite having grown used to being on her own once more. Even though she jokes that she is considering joining dating app Raya, these experiences have only strengthened her conviction that nothing is everlasting.
“I believe my toyboy days are over.” If they are fit, I would say anything from 55 to 70, she goes on. It is obvious that her son, 38, and mother, Audrey, 38, are now her true love.
The latter moved in with Shirley in her south-east London home in 2021, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer. Like this time around, she’s always been by her daughter’s side.
She wasn’t sure about it when I told her I wanted to get married at the age of 16. She laughs and then I got married at age 19, so I believe I was a constant source of pain in her butt for the rest of her years. “And then, of course, I left my first husband and fled to America, and then, of course, I became pregnant in the middle of my career.
I remember calling her and telling her, “You know what, Mum, I’m pregnant,” and she was shocked. She has seen it all, therefore.
Shirley Ballas’ best book, BEST FOOT FORWARD, was released by BBC Books on September 11th at a price of £22 (copyright).
