Strictly star Shirley Ballas has opened up about how a horrifying death threat left her absolutely terrified during a stint in the North East for pantomine last Christmas.
The BBC show's head judge was starring in Jack & the Beanstalk at the Darlington Hippodrome when she received the alarming letter sent to the theatre
Revealing more in new autobiography Behind The Sequins, Shirley said it came with a picture of her digging her own grave and explained: "This one showed a figure of me digging my own grave, with the message, "Do you realise how much you are hated?"
Another part of the letter read: "Gob*****. Could you - during your gob******* performance - remove your head from your huge fat a******.".
Shirley first addressed the disgusting mail in an Instagram video earlier this year when she finished her panto run in Darlington, starring alongside the likes of Britain's Got Talent champion George Sampson.
She told her many followers: "As we know I had quite a lot of bullying on Strictly last series and my Instagram inbox was full of horrific and horrendous messages.
Now it's gone a step further and I've had a hand delivered message addressed to me, with not so nice comments or words
"I do find it quite upsetting when I've been out there performing and then I read something like this from someone who doesn't even know me.
Anyone out there who receives awful messages or hate mail," she said, "The issue is the other person's, not ours."
Shirley will be back on screen this Saturday in the first episode of Strictly 2020 when millions of viewers when celebrities, including GMB's Ranvir Singh, The Wanted's Max George and EastEnders actress Maisie Smith, find out which pro dancers they are paired with for the series.
