I get sent horrendous sexually explicit messages by trolls and it’s changed my life, says Strictly’s Shirley Ballas
STRICTLY Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas has bravely opened up about the toll sexually explicit messages from trolls has taken on her.
The BBC star, 63, appeared on Olivia Attwood‘s ITV2 documentary last night, where she revealed the vile, graphic messages she is subjected to on social media.
Speaking on Olivia Attwood Vs The Trolls, Shirley admitted that the distressing experience has “changed my life completely.”
The Strictly legend tells the Love Island star: “These are some of the very sexual messages that I get constantly from various different people.”
Olivia then reads out the messages, which are too graphic to print, before describing them as “abhorrent”.
Shirley then explained the psychological impact these kind of messages have had on her.
“Some of them are so nerve-racking that I can’t show you,” Shirley says, adding that it has changed how safe she feels in public.
“I am not just talking about your phone. I am talking about being in public. You worry about those same strange people that write these kind of messages. Are they lurking in dark corners? Are they hiding behind walls when you go somewhere?”
She continues: “This whole experience has made me much more vigilant. I cannot say that I leave my front door unless I am on point. I never relax. It has changed my life completely I would say.”
Shirley has told how she even considered leaving the show because of the vile messages she had been receiving.
“It’s when it is personal about myself and my family and it affects my mental health,” she says.
“I have had people draw coffins with me in it with somebody with a spade that said, ‘Die you b***h’.”
Despite her struggle behind the scenes, however, Shirley wowed fans as Strictly kicked off a new series on Saturday night.
The Queen of Latin even took to the dancefloor for an incredible routine with her fellow judges Anton du Beke, 57, Craig Revel Horwood, 58 and Motsi Mabuse, 42.
Shirley, who performed to Rita Ora’s Praising You, said before the show aired: “The audience is in for a real treat. My dance shoes are back out and it feels amazing. I’ve been put through my paces.
“But to be dancing with my fellow judges and the professional dancers is a feeling like no other.”