Shirley Ballas has denied the 'sexism' accusations levelled at her by angry Strictly Come Dancing viewers, as well as opening up on the 'unfathomable' abuse she received online at the weekend.
Head judge on the long-running BBC show for five years, after replacing Len Goodman in the hot, Shirley is a former dancing world champion, giving her the ideal qualifications to be a Strictly panellist. However, her critiques and scores have proved to be very divisive, with viewers very vocal on their disapproval.
So far this series, Shirley has been accused of having 'favouritism' towards male stars like Tyler West, who she awarded a 10 to last weekend and Will Mellor and being 'sexist' towards female stars like Ellie Taylor and Fleur East, with Shirley saying she'd have kept Richie Anderson in over Fleur after the dance-off, the exact opposite to how her three colleagues voted. Shirley's decision added fuel to the fire online and, when she appeared as a guest on Wednesday's Loose Women, she revealed that the language in some of the messages she received was so explicit, she couldn't re-post them.
