AFTER two divorces, Shirley Ballas has found love once again.
The Strictly judge has been open about her desire to find a partner. Here’s what we know about her hunky toyboy…
Daniel is a 44-year-old actor.
He’s had an extensive career both on stage and screen and is one of the country’s most successful theatre actors.
The Brit has also had roles in TV series The Bill and Brookside.
Like Shirley, he’s a trained dancer in ballroom, tap and waltz and even released an album in 2015 called The Party Is Over.
He has a young son with actress Sharon Byatt, who played Irenee in the sitcom Bread.
They still appear to be on good terms, with Sharon using an image of Daniel as her profile photo on social media.
In January 2019, The Sun exclusively revealed that Shirley was dating Daniel.
The couple met during rehearsals for Jack And The Beanstalk, which they starred in together over Christmas.
News of her new romance comes just a week after she had told TV host Lorraine Kelly that she’d met “somebody nice.”
The Strictly judge had also hinted she had started dating again when she tweeted that her panto co-star Daniel was a “very funny handsome man”.
The pair had also been seen getting cosy in selfies taken during their stint together in the Christmas show.
And pictures of 58-year-old Shirley and her 44-year-old toyboy Daniel walking arm-in-arm on a date in London seemed to confirm they were an item.
An onlooker said: “Shirley and Daniel looked like young lovers who didn’t have a care in the world. It was very sweet to see.
“They got off the train at London Bridge station before wandering down to the River Thames. They seemed blissfully happy.”
A source close to Shirley said: “She has been in the very early days of dating Daniel. But she is not in a relationship and he is not her boyfriend.
“Shirley has been open about being single for the past four-and-half years but feels ready to put herself out there again and start enjoying life.”
Shirley Ballas, 58, is a British ballroom dancer who specialises in Latin dance and has won several championships earning her the nickname, The Queen of Latin.
She grew up in Wallasey in the North of England with her mother Audrey and brother David.
Her love of ballroom dance started aged seven when she took her first class in her local hall.
The talented youngster then started competing in competitions from the age of eight and, at 15 she moved to North Yorkshire to compete with British Ballroom Champion Nigel Tiffany.
They got engaged when she was 16 and a year later they moved to London.
However, she was then asked to try out to be Sammy Stopford’s partner, they fell in love and got married and went on to become one of the fastest rising couples in ballroom dance.
They danced together from when she was 18 to 23 and won all the major titles worldwide.
The pair then parted ways and she met Corky Ballas, who she married and had son Mark with in 1986.
Corky and Shirley competed together and won their first professional Latin title in 1984 and went on to win it a further eight years in a row.
In 1990, they moved back to the UK and went on to win the Open British Professional Latin title in 1995 and ’96.
Shirley was previously a judge on the American version of Dancing With The Stars.
