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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Lucy Needham

Strictly's Shirley Ballas struck by illness and hooked up to drip after death threats

Strictly Come Dancing's head judge Shirley Ballas has been struck by illness and had to be hooked up to a vitamin drip just days before Saturday's show.

It comes after Shirley was sent death threats over the early elimination of contestants Dev Griffin and Dianne Buswell.

Shirley, 59, revealed she was needing some TLC after falling ill after a 'tough' week.

A make-up free Shirley shared a picture to Instagram of her lying down in a cosy jumper while a drip was fixed to her left arm on a home visit.

"Full of all sorts of things Vitamin c, Magnesium b12 and the list goes on. Feeling under the weather today as a result of a tough week," she told her followers.

"Hopefully we'll be right as rain for Saturday," she added.

The judges have come under fire for the decision to send Dev home (DIGITAL/EROTEME.CO.UK)
BBC bosses have already had to replace Bruno Tonioli on Saturday (BBC)

Strictly is already one judge down with Bruno Tonilio skipping the fifth show of the series to focus on his Dancing With The Stars commitments.

Bruno will be replaced on Saturday by Fresh Prince of Bel Air star Alfonso Ribeiro.

It has been a dramatic week for the BBC One dance contest following a controversial dance off on Sunday's results show.

Viewers were outraged to see Radio 1 DJ Dev and fan favourite Dianne sent home so soon.

The mass outcry over the decision led to red-head Dianne take to Twitter and plead with trolls to stop sending Shirley Ballas death threats.

Fans sent Shirley death threats (BBC)

one fan took to Twitter to alert Dianne and her boyfriend Joe Sugg to the toxic abuse being sent to Shirley.

"Please sort your fans out @dbuzz6589 & @Joe_Sugg. I get why people are upset & I don't think it was @dev_101's time to go. But sending vile abusive tweets & death threats to @ShirleyBallas is totally out of order. Imagine if it was a member of your family on the receiving end," they said.

Dianne said she was very upset to hear what Shirley was being subjected to.

"Guys this is terrible you can not be bullying like this . It’s awful and really upsets me to hear this . It's simply not ok and should never happen!" Dianne told her 143,000 followers.

Strictly's Dev Griffin admitted he was 'absolutely gutted' after early exit as pro Dianne was close to tears (BBC/Guy Levy)
Shirley said the viewers were as much to blame (Ken McKay/ITV/REX)

Earlier in the week, Shirley appeared on Loose Women where she claimed Strictly viewers were to blame for not saving Dev and Dianne.

The judges had given the couple a high score for their cha cha but the impact of the viewer vote sent the duo crashing into the bottom two by the end of the night.

Shirley said: "People have got to get out there and vote. We do our job. As you can see there were many people saved with lot lower scores.

"It's just so important. I respect everybody at home who’s been watching fifteen series. Everyone has a favourite. We do our job to the best we can.

"We have to do it right there in that split second on the one minute 20 seconds. We have to make a decision.

"The three judges were unanimous. It wasn’t down to me. It was unanimous and I agreed."

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