I'll never feel completely safe again after my stalker ordeal

SHIRLEY BALLAS TALKS ABOUT HER FEARS, HER RECENT BREAK UP AND SUICIDAL THOUGHTS IN BOMBSHELL BOOK.

- BY TOM BRYANT

SHE may be the queen of the Strictly ballroom, but away from the glitz and glamour, Shirley Ballas has faced heartbreak, a terrifying stalker ordeal and battles with her own mental health.

She reveals in her new memoir how one of the most painful chapters came on her 64th birthday, when a late-night message about her fiancé, Danny Taylor, turned her world upside down.

Cuddled up in bed with her mum, Audrey, 87, last September, Shirley's phone suddenly lit up.

It was a relative of Danny's, telling her he'd gone missing, his phone was switched off and his family were very worried about him.

Suddenly, Shirley was engulfed by harrowing thoughts of her brother, David, who had tragically taken his own life in 2003, aged 44.

“I will never forget that day until the day I die,’ she says. “All those memories came flooding back.”

Shirley spent the next few hours frantically trying to track Danny down. Then at 2am, she noticed her WhatsApps to him had been read. Relief turned to anger when Danny reappeared the next day - and carried on as if nothing had happened.

Almost immediately, Shirley realised she couldn't be with someone who could cause her such agony.

“I still loved him, but I thought, ‘This is something I can’t continue to be a part of,’” she explains.

She and Danny, who is 13 years her junior, met in 2018 while starring in panto together. She admits she quickly fell head over heels for him. The pair got engaged in 2021.

“He came into my life at a point when I really, really needed somebody to share,” says Shirley, who had been single for four and a half years. “But... there were red flags that I chose to ignore and it got to a point where the relationship was becoming too difficult for me in many ways.”