Shirley Ballas exposes ex’s ‘unforgivable’ actions as she swears off love: 'No dates!'

Lydia Davies
Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:48:09 +0000

Shirley Ballas has revealed she has no desire to enter into another relationship following her split from former fiancé Danny Taylor in 2024.

The 65-year-old Strictly Come Dancing head judge ended her six-year romance with the theatre actor, telling The Times he had done things she considers “quite unforgivable”.

She said: “He’s done some things that are really under the table and quite unforgivable.

“But I’m OK at the moment. No dates. I don’t want to call anyone a boyfriend or a this or a that.”

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Ms Ballas explained that Mr Taylor would frequently disappear without explanation, sometimes for days at a time, including on one occasion during her birthday, which left her deeply upset.

She said the repeated absences triggered painful memories of her brother David, who died by suicide at the age of 44 in 2003.

The dancer explained that when her former partner became unreachable, it reignited fears linked to the circumstances surrounding her brother’s death, as he had also been impossible to contact beforehand.

“He was disappearing all the time,” she said.

“It just got to a point where it was so upsetting every time it happened that I decided to call it a day.

"It’s better to be on my own than constantly worrying and stressed about somebody else.”

Ms Ballas previously told The Mirror: “All those memories came flooding back… it triggered all these emotions.”

She recalled one particularly distressing incident while sitting with her mother, Audrey, when she received a message from one of Mr Taylor’s relatives saying he had gone missing.

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Police were contacted and Ms Ballas spent hours trying to reach him through friends and family.

At 2am, she noticed he had viewed her WhatsApp messages but did not respond, before reappearing the following day as though nothing had happened.

“I will never forget that day,” she said.

“I remember looking across in the middle of the night, and I saw my mother was just so upset, reliving all of her trauma.

“I just thought, ‘this can’t go on’. Not just for my sake, but my mum too.”

Despite a turbulent romantic history, including two marriages and four engagements, Ms Ballas has not completely ruled out companionship.

Earlier this year, she admitted going on “a date or two” since the split, but stressed she is not looking for anything serious.

She told the Daily Mail: “I know my truth. I know my authentic self, and if I want to go out on a date, I will go."

She continued: "Nothing serious. No labels, no tags."

“I am very careful when I do go out with someone. I will have known them for a while.”

She added that if she were to consider another relationship in future, she would want a partner who is both generous and intelligent.