Shirley Ballas has spoken about the painful moment she split from fiancé Danny Taylor, after he disappeared without a trace on her birthday.
The Strictly Come Dancing head judge, 64, had been with Taylor for six years after the pair met while performing in panto in 2018.
But when he went missing during her birthday celebrations last November, it triggered painful memories of her brother David, who died by suicide in 2003.
Shirley told The Mirror she was with her 87-year-old mother Audrey when she received a call from one of Danny’s relatives saying he had gone missing.
She said: "All those memories came flooding back… it triggered all these emotions.
"I will never forget that day until the day I die. I remember looking across in the middle of the night and I saw my mother was just so upset, reliving all of her trauma,' she said.
"I just thought 'this can't go on'. Not just for my sake, but my mum too."
The Strictly star spent hours phoning Danny's friends and family in a bid to find out what had happened to him.
By 2am, she could see that he had read worried messages that she had sent him.
But she says he reappeared the next day and acted as if nothing had happened, causing her to question whether the relationship could continue.
Shirley said she had fallen head over heels for Danny, who is 13 years her junior, after they appeared together in Jack In The Beanstalk in Liverpool. Shirley played Mother Nature while Danny played the villain Fleshcreep.
Shirley says the loves of her life are her son Mark, 39, and mother Audrey, 87, who she lives with, despite being twice-married and engaged four times.
She previously announced she had no plans to marry Taylor, 51, after hinting at issues in their relationship last year. The couple had called off their wedding plans in 2023, as Ballas revealed she had "changed her mind" about marriage and no longer wanted to walk down the aisle.
Speaking to Jamie Laing on his Great Company podcast last December, she described her love life as a "disaster".
She added: “You know, 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.
“So, it’s fate, if you want to, it’s directions that you choose.”
