Shirley: Why I had fat drained from my arms and legs

AS Strictly Come Dancing’s head judge, she displays the confidence to match her glamour.

But Shirley Ballas says she has spent her life battling with low self-esteem. The 61-year-old has revealed the lengths to which she went to change her appearance, including work on her teeth, breasts, arms and legs.

‘I have struggled with my selfesteem all my life,’ Miss Ballas told Prima magazine.

‘I’ve done all sorts to try to make myself feel more confident: I had my teeth straightened and fat drained out of my arms and legs; I thought doing my boobs would make my husband at the time like me more, but I was doing it for the wrong reasons.

‘You have to love yourself first. That’s my message to every woman’. Miss Ballas, who replaced Len Goodman as Strictly’s head judge in 2017, said she is following advice she was given by her

‘I’m learning to be myself more’

son Mark, 35. I’m learning to be myself more on the show,’ she said. ‘That’s something my son Mark said to me. I need to drop the walls because people can spot it when you’re being guarded.

‘They see right through it, so I might as well be the real me.’

Twice-divorced Miss Ballas said her partner Danny Taylor, who is more than ten years her junior, has ‘changed my life’ and she hopes they will marry.

‘He’s very different to anyone I’ve been with before,’ she said. ‘First of all, he’s 6ft 1in, he’s the tallest man I’ve ever dated, and I love his jet black hair. He’s also very kind and very caring – he’s always there for me.

‘I hope he’ll propose one day, but he’s never married and I think he’s a bit nervous about it, so we’ll see. Come on, Danny!’ n The January issue of Prima is on sale now.