Strictly’s Shirley Ballas’s health battles explored as she struggles on new Netflix show

head judge has candidly discussed her personal battles with “dark times” and health issues. The dancer, who also stars in Bear Grylls’s upcoming show, stepped up as the face of a campaign that champions pelvic floor exercises and urges women to seek assistance for bladder leak issues.

Shirley confessed: “It did take a minute when I was invited to do this, because even though I can talk about this among my friends, it’s a bit of a taboo subject.”

She recounted a heart-to-heart with her elderly mother, Audrey: “But when I sat with my mum Audrey, who’s 87, she said to me, ‘Think of all the women you could help, think of all the people out there for whom you could make it not such a taboo subject.’

“She has a much better memory than me and reminded me of some of the things I’ve been through myself.”

At 64, Shirley opened up about her own struggles with bladder control post-childbirth and during menopause. Now, she’s on a ‘mission’ to promote open dialogue as part of her commitment to Always Discreet’s Squeeze the Day campaign.

She continued to !: “One of the times leaks have affected me was, of course, when I gave birth to Mark when I was 25, and I had to wear a sort of napkin and get back to dancing straight away. There was no sort of help for me or anything.

“I gave birth to him and there was nobody there for me, it was just, ‘Get back to it and don’t complain.’ I was in pain and I was breast-feeding and I remember my boobs leaking in the church and nobody really cared or helped.

“It wasn’t pretty for me after I gave birth to my son or during menopause. I kept it all very personal, as I did with the menopause, but my mum thinks life is about helping people, that’s why I’m on this mission. So, I think it’s important we talk about bladder leaks, and the more I talk about it, the easier it becomes.”

Shirley became a mother to her son Mark Ballas – now a three-time Dancing with the Stars champion in the US – in 1986, shortly after marrying his father and fellow dancer, Mark ‘Corky’ Ballas.

“It was very different back then,” she revealed. “I was still working the night before I gave birth and six weeks after he was born, I had to get back to dancing. I remember my dance teacher saying to me at the time, ‘How dare you come out here and compete with those stretch marks?’ He marked us sixth in a competition we should’ve really won.

“I still remember the feeling that he left me with. And then I was in the darkest place in my life during menopause. It’s only now that I’m learning a lot more about it, and I just want to make it easy and not a taboo subject.”

After nearly a decade as Strictly’s head judge, Shirley has evolved into a nurturing presence offstage. Her role has become even more vital considering the controversy that clouded the landmark 20th series of the show, prompting a investigation.

Now she feels deeply connected to the show’s off-camera activities. “I feel like this series, particularly, I’m more aware of everything that’s going on backstage, and if I feel that somebody needs an extra snuggle bunny cuddle, I take off my Strictly dance hats and I’m there on an emotional basis for some people,” she revealed.

Shirley will join Mel B, Boris Becker, and Steph McGovern in Bear Grylls and Holly Willoughby’s new TV series, Celebrity Bear Hunt. The show, which drops on on Wednesday, will see the 12 celebrities sent to the jungle in Costa Rica and face tough physical challenges.

Those who perform the worst will be hunted by the survival expert, 50, and, if captured, could be eliminated from the show.

Speaking about the show, Shirley confessed to The Sun: “I’ll be 65 this year, and in these however many years I have left, I wanted to put myself outside the box and do things that perhaps I never would in ordinary life.

“I don’t like jungles. I don’t like snakes, I don’t like spiders and I certainly don’t like those ants that when they fall on you they bite you half to death.

“But the day I stop challenging myself will be the day they put me in the wooden box.”