'I felt very uncomfortable, and then I started to feel used...' Shirley Ballas relives moment ex Danny Taylor told her 'don't pressure me to get married'
Shirley Ballas has recalled how she felt when her ex-partner, Danny Taylor, allegedly told her not to "pressure me to get married" during their engagement.
Shirley Ballas felt "very uncomfortable" and "used" after her ex-partner Danny Taylor allegedly stressed for her not to "pressure [him] to get married".
The Strictly Come Dancing judge was all for getting engaged to the 52-year-old actor - who had the "idea" - during a stay in Edinburgh, Scotland, until he "very flippantly" made the claimed remark to Shirley.
The Queen of Latin - who also felt she "wasn't good enough for marriage" afterwards - relived the awful moment in the new issue of Woman's Weekly magazine: "I had my nails done and we had the ring. Of course, I bought the ring.
"Then he said to me very flippantly, 'We can get engaged, but don't pressure me to get married.'
"I said, 'If you think I'm pressuring you to get married, I don't even need to get engaged!' It was originally his idea.
"I felt very uncomfortable, and then I started to feel used. I was good enough for everything else, but I wasn't good enough for marriage."
Shirley, 65, dumped Danny after he disappeared on her birthday - September 6 - last year, and when he appeared the following day, she ended their six-year relationship and they have not spoken since.
The star recalled: "I wanted to have that final chat, which could have ended everything really smooth, but there's never been a phone call, a sit down, a chat and [a chance to] sort things out."
Shirley - who was rejected from joining the celebrity dating app Raya - said it is "liberating" being single.
She explained: "When I was with Danny, if I wanted to go and see my son [Mark], or I'd like to do this or that, I had to ask somebody else's opinion.
"Now I don't have to ask anybody's opinion to do what I want. It's liberating."
The TV personality has "Danny" inked across her lower back, and she is considering tweaking the tattoo so it says "Dance".
Shirley quipped: "Lord knows what I'm going to do with that. I'll probably laser it and make it into 'Dance'."
Shirley was married to former ballroom sensation Sammy Stopford, 69, from 1980 to 1984, before she said "I do" to dancer Corky Ballas, 64, in 1985 - who she split from in 2007 after 22 years together.
And in January, Shirley said she "would have married Danny tomorrow if he asked me", but ultimately declared she will never marry again.
The star told Celebrity Traitors star Alan Carr, 49, on his Life's A Beach podcast at the time: "Two marriages, an engagement, two long-term relationships later and I will not be getting married again. I've made the decision."
