Shirley Ballas has said living with her mother is “the most joyous thing”, adding that the 88-year-old is “self-sufficient” – unlike boyfriends.
Strictly Come Dancing’s head judge, who lives in south-east London with her mother Audrey Rich, told the Telegraph: “Living with her is the most joyous thing, she does the washing and the ironing, and still stands on a stool to clean her ornaments – though I wish she wouldn’t.
“She puts the meals on the table, things like vegetable casseroles, and I take care of the rest. We are a bit like husband and wife.”
The 65-year-old former professional dancer who split with her partner Danny Taylor in 2024 after six years together previously said she did not think she would ever have another relationship.
“I’ve had a few boyfriends and I just found myself always having to take care of them,” said Ballas of her living arrangement, telling the newspaper her mother moved in permanently four years ago.
“My mother, however, is self-sufficient. She doesn’t like a fuss, she doesn’t tell me what to say or tell me what to do.”
Ballas, who has been married twice, had been engaged to Taylor, who is 13 years her junior, but called it off after what she called “unforgivable behaviour”.
Of Taylor being labelled her toyboy, the Wallasey-born dancer said: “What annoys me is that older men dating younger women get applauded. Al Pacino is in his 80s and has just had a baby.
“Yet if women get a younger boyfriend it’s disdainfully looked upon. Women get judged.”
The head judge, who is currently single, said she has a few “friends”, but that there is “nothing I would want to tag as ‘boyfriend and girlfriend’”.
“I love the idea of being married, even after two failed marriages and failed relationships along the way,” she said. “But at this age you get set in your ways.”
When Ballas returns to the judge’s table on the Strictly set in September, it will be alongside the new hosts, announced earlier this week following Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s departure last year.
“I’ve worked with Emma (Willis) before on Cooking With The Stars and she is a true professional. And who doesn’t love JoJo (Johannes Radebe)? He’s a shining star,” said Ballas.
“And I’m looking forward to the banter Josh (Widdicombe) is going to bring, he’s a fabulous comedian, I know he’s going to give Craig Revel Horwood a run for his money with the comebacks.”
Her mother survived colon cancer and has COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
“She shouldn’t smoke, but her ‘breakfast’ is still coffee and a Rothman Blue Super King,” Ballas told the Telegraph. “She says, ‘just let me keep this one little thing I love at the age of 88’.”
Ballas said she and her mother are proud that Rich can now order her medicine on her phone, as Ballas has fronted a new campaign encouraging adults to embrace technology as a tool to make their lives easier.
The head judge said: “I’ve taught her not to be frightened of technology because it can be so helpful for older people if they are shown how it works. She loves using emojis.”
The former dancer uses tech to keep in touch with her son Mark, 39, also a professional dancer and a judge on the US TV show Dancing with the Stars, who lives in California with Ballas’s two-year-old grandson Banksi.
“We FaceTime every day,” Ballas said.
Though she thinks her time on TV will come to an end, Ballas believes she will not retire.
“I don’t think I’ll ever retire, I’m not going to sit in the garden planting tulips, that’s not who I am,” Ballas said.
“The TV work will come to an end, that’s how it works, but it’s given me a platform to help people – charities, campaigns, COPD awareness – and that’s the part I love.
“Along with being a dance teacher because I love helping young people achieve their dreams, just as I have.”
