'My Ancestor Was A Slave'

Strictly’s Shirley Ballas on making heartbreaking discoveries in her family history…

- Tess Lamacraft

Shirley Ballas has become a household name since taking over from Len Goodman as Head Judge on Strictly Come Dancing last year.

Glamorous and softly spoken Shirley, 57, winner of numerous world dance championship titles, says that being part of the BBC1 Saturday night extravaganza is a dream come true. But her life and rise to fame has been far from easy.

Growing up on a council estate in Merseyside, Shirley was raised by her mum Audrey after her dad walked out when she was just two years old. Her own two marriages ended in divorce and she was devastated when her only sibling, David, who suffered from mental health issues, tragically took his own life 14 years ago.

With many parts of her family history a mystery, Shirley, whose son Mark, 32, is also a dancer, jumped at the chance to find out more for this week’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

‘I had heard on my dad’s side that we might have black ancestry, so I was particularly keen to find out more about that’, says Shirley, as she chats to TV Times.

Tracing her family tree back to the mid-19th century, she is emotional to discover that one of her distant relations had once been working as a slave. Here Shirley tells us more…

How much did you already know about your ancestors?