Shirley Ballas on Strictly and living with her mother
The Strictly Come Dancing head judge on why sharing a home with her 88-year-old mother is easier than living with a boyfriend.
The Strictly Come Dancing head judge on why sharing a home with her 88-year-old mother is easier than living with a boyfriend.
In the eight years she’s been on the judging panel of Strictly Come Dancing, Shirley Ballas has had to endure all sorts of flak.
It took a long time for the 65-year-old dance champion to find a way to manage what sometimes felt like incessant criticism. There is, however, one critic she cannot – and would not want to – escape: her 88-year-old mother Audrey, with whom Shirley shares her south London home.
“I walk in through the door after a show and there she is in this little old pink dressing gown which has got to be as old as she is, and I can see from her face she’s disagreed with my marks,” she laughs. “Even though I’m 65 I can still feel like a young girl again.”
She wouldn’t have it any other way, of course. As becomes abundantly clear during the course of our chat, Audrey is both Shirley’s best friend and her role model, an indefatigable presence who, despite having battled cancer and a list of health challenges, “just keeps going, dining, cooking, cleaning”.
“She never complains,” says Shirley. “She’s of the school that you just get on with it.
”It was Audrey who raised Shirley on a Merseyside housing estate. And while Shirley travelled with her dance career, it was Audrey who helped raise Shirley’s son Mark, from her second marriage to American ballroom dancer Corky Ballas (her first marriage, to dancer Sammy Stopford, ended when she was just 22). They’ve shared a home countless times over the years, but three years ago, Shirley moved Audrey in with her for good.
“It’s easier than living with a boyfriend,” she smiles, not entirely joking.
“I could never, ever put her in a home. She was there for me from the beginning, and I shall be with her till the end – although she thinks she’ll outlive me.”
It means that, even if it involves a six-hour car drive, Shirley will make sure she goes home on her day off every week from this year’s Strictly Come Dancing tour, which kicks off at the end of January and foxtrots its way to arenas around the country.
“It’s not a chore," she says of the weekly return home. "I’m genuinely excited to see her and hear what she has to say about things.”
Shirley’s excited about the tour too, describing the atmosphere as ‘iconic’, although she’s lamenting the absence of fellow judge Motsi Mabuse, with whom she shared a changing room last year.
“We had the best time ever,” says Shirley. “But unfortunately, she can’t be there this year because of family commitments, so it’ll be me taking care of the boys.”
The ‘boys’, of course, being fellow judges Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood, of whom Shirley is also genuinely fond. “We do have a lovely time,” she says.
Lovely and hopefully uneventful, following a tumultuous 2025 Strictly season featuring injuries galore and the surprise news of hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s departure, which caught not just the public but Shirley and her fellow judges off-guard.
“Everyone was surprised,” she admits, confiding she will dearly miss them both. “I share the changing room next to them, and they are full of giggles and laughter. They also showed me the way from when I joined until now, so it will be a sad day when they go.”
Strictly Come Dancing Live tours the UK from 23 January to 15 February.
Shirley's autobiography Best Foot Forward is her "tool kit for living your best life" and filled with more stories about Shirley’s life on and off the dance floor.
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