Shirley Ballas

“I meditate and take time for controlled breathing.”

“You have to put your partner and family at the top of the list and there must be downtime - time for gardening, cooking time, book reading time.”

“I've discovered if you have a small circle of people you know you can rely on - in good times, bad times, happy times, sad times - who aren't going to judge you and will, sometimes, just sit and listen to you without saying anything, then I think you're very fortunate.”

“My mother raised two children on a housing estate, in a place where people said once you got on, you never got off. And she believed in me. So when people tell you that you can't, you can.”

“No one wants to see my bits jiggling.”

“When I moved to L.A. I was single and didn't want to be on my own.”

“I love ballroom dance, my favorite style being the Argentine Tango.”

“I am an absolute clean freak and scrub things constantly; I am an over-perfectionist.”

“When I got the Strictly' job it made sense to come back to England.”

“My dad left when I was two and I didn't know too much about his family.”

“I met my first dance partner when I was about 17 or 18 and we were married by the time we were 18 or 19, I don't remember the exact date, and everything was dance, dance, dance. Then there came just a short space of time where I was wondering whether I was missing out on anything. Back then when you danced, everybody married their dance partner.”

“There was some bullying going on in my industry, which I felt particularly when I was growing up and as I got older.”

“I didn't overly have friends in L.A. I would work and come home and watch television.”

“For Strictly,' when you go out on a Saturday, you want to look your best for the public. I can't go out there in my jogging bottoms.”

“Curvy women are gorgeous. All women are gorgeous.”

“I like the table to be beautiful with flowers and a nice tablecloth. I'm the hostess with the mostess.”

“Don't do what I did and think you need to have these procedures to make you look more attractive. Don't look at the implant and think it will make you beautiful and everyone will really love you.”

“My hairdresser Alan, who I've known since I began competing, lives with us, along with his husband Nathan, so I have my own gay gaggle.”

“My mother collects engagement rings.”

“You know when you go into a room there's always somebody that thinks they're better than somebody else.”