Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas has revealed the lasting trauma caused by a seven-year stalking campaign, admitting she fears she will never feel completely safe again. The 64-year-old spoke about the ordeal at the hands of Kyle Shaw, 37, who received a suspended 20-month prison sentence in April.
In her new memoir Best Foot Forward, Ballas details how Shaw's harassment began after she joined the Strictly panel in 2017. He sent messages claiming to be the biological son of her late brother David, who died by suicide in 2003, and demanded a DNA test while accusing her of his death. The messages escalated, with Shaw contacting her through multiple social media platforms and eventually targeting her family.
Ballas described how Shaw followed her elderly mother Audrey in a supermarket in Liscard, prompting her to move her mother into her London home. She installed CCTV and extra alarm systems, stopped using public transport, and received additional security from the BBC. She wrote: 'I didn't feel safe in my own home and had sleepless nights worrying about what he was going to do.'
Despite reporting the abuse to Merseyside Police, Ballas said the system made it difficult to bring charges. 'It's as if you have to come to physical harm before the law steps in to protect you,' she wrote. Shaw was eventually arrested in December 2023 and charged with stalking.
Ballas said she will 'never feel completely safe again' and is constantly watching her surroundings. 'Life shouldn't have to be like that. That's what he's done to me and my family,' she told the Sunday Mirror.
