Shirley Ballas has admitted she now believes she ‘isn’t meant to have a romantic relationship’.
Last year the Strictly Come Dancing head judge announced she’d split from her fiancé Danny Taylor after six years together.
Their break-up came after Shirley, 65, said she’d ‘changed her mind’ about marriage and no longer wanted to walk down the aisle for a third time.
She went on to reveal their break-up during an appearance on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast in December last year, explaining: ‘Currently, I’ve just split with my boyfriend. My relationships have been a disaster, all the way along the line.’
This week she appeared on Paul C Brunson’s We Need to Talk podcast, in which she spoke about her thoughts on being single again.
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‘I probably got what I deserved,’ she said after speaking about leaving two of her ex-partners for other men.
![Editorial use only Mandatory Credit: Photo by S Meddle/ITV/REX (10465017o) Shirley Ballas and Danny Taylor 'Lorraine' TV show, London, UK - 04 Nov 2019 Strictly judge Shirley Ballas spoke exclusively to Lorraine after undergoing an operation to remove her breast implants. Of how she?s feeling she said: ?I?m good. It?s definitely been an emotional week for sure.? On not missing the show post-surgery, she said: ?I made a commitment to the show and I wanted to see it through. I made a decision to put them in and I made the decision to take them out. She added that it is painful: ?It is and it was for the show and I chose to take minimal painkillers. Every day it will get better. About 6 to 8 weeks recuperation. I won?t [miss a show]. Speaking of having her boyfriend Danny Taylor by her side, she said: ?A lot easier for me ? with confidence. I definitely lack in self-esteem in my personal life. Not at all in my work. And I think since I met Danny that?s sort of grown now, it?s getting much clearer. I think gradually a little bit I?m getting there.?](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/PRI_204555778-c5d1-e1756546125952.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
‘I don’t think I’m put on Planet Earth to have a relationship. Every relationship was a disaster for me or ended up being a disaster. Even with my last boyfriend. I thought I’d found the one forever.
‘And, you know, that turned out also not to work.’
Shirley then went on to say she now wanted to ‘focus on my grandson and family, blocking out noise and be a little bit more insular’.
‘I think it’s been a rocky life,’ she added.
In the interview Shirley said that she believed rather than having been put on Earth ‘to get dancers to where they need to be’.
‘Dating for me, I don’t think I was put on planet Earth to have somebody love me, to nurture me, to cherish me. I think I’m on planet Earth to get the dancers to where they need to be, to take care of my mum, to be there for my son for the years that I missed, and my grandson. And it’s not I’m playing the violin or feeling sorry for myself,’ she said.
‘It’s just moments when I sit and I think sometimes you’re put on this Earth for other things. To help other people’s children achieve their goals, to the couples that come in that are upset or need help or a bit of that person, I feel I am.’
Shirley was first engaged aged 16 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.
Following reports of infidelity on his side, the couple split in 2007.
She went on to meet actor and dancer Danny in 2019 after first meeting while working on a pantomime production.
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.
In August she said her last relationship ended after he disappeared on her birthday, which sparked similar feelings to the death of her brother David, who died by suicide in 2003.
‘All those memories came flooding back… it triggered all these emotions,’ she told The Mirror when recalling receiving a call saying her fiancé was missing.
‘I will never forget that day until the day I die,’ she explained. ‘I remember looking across in the middle of the night and I saw my mother was just so upset, reliving all of her trauma. I just thought, “this can’t go on”. Not just for my sake, but my mum too.’
She spent hours desperately trying to track Danny down, calling his friends and family in the middle of the night. Around 2am Shirley released he’d read her worried messages, but didn’t bother replying.
When he reappeared the following day as though nothing had happened, Shirley realised their relationship had reached its breaking point.
She previously called her son and mother Audrey as the true loves of her life.
‘My mother is the only thing that’s been a staple in my life. No friend, no marriage, no nothing. 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 said.
Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday at 6.20pm on BBC One.
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