Shirley Ballas says she is feeling ‘much better’ after falling on to glass table
By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
Strictly Come Dancing’s Shirley Ballas has said she is “feeling much better” after she was taken to hospital after falling and hitting her head on a glass table.
The 65-year-old head judge on the BBC dancing programme said she was taking time to heal her neck and back following the incident on Saturday, but had not injured her skull.
In an update posted to Instagram on Sunday, she said: “Just trying to get everything sorted, and grateful for the nurses, the doctors and my friends who helped me with everything, so feeling in my head much better today, and grateful, and need to rest.
“All those things that perhaps one doesn’t do because we’re always running around, and never sit on a stool with a cushion.”
Ballas went on to say she would be posting a demonstration of how she fell from the stool as she said people “need to be careful”.
She said she needed to “take it easy for 72 hours” and added that she should then feel “right as rain” and “like a new woman”.
In her initial post on Instagram on Saturday, Ballas said: “Thank you to all who reached out to see how I’m doing.
“Scary fall backwards hitting my head on the glass dressing table. Trip to hospital to get a brain scan. Fortunately for me no cracked skull.
“I’ll rest a few days to heal my neck and back.
“Hugs (and) thank you to @barbara_mccoll (a fellow professional dancer) for getting my emergency appointment and to Sammy Stopford (her ex-husband) for taking me, and sitting with me all day. Gratitude, as the doctor said I was very lucky.”
Ballas is due to take part in the Strictly Come Dancing live tour with fellow judges Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood when it begins next week, with 30 shows scheduled until February 15th.
The Wirral-born star joined Strictly in 2017, and made her debut as head judge in September that year.
Ballas has used her platform to advocate for male suicide awareness and men’s mental health, after her brother took his own life in 2003.
She is an ambassador for charities Campaign Against Living Miserably and Suicide&Co.
In August last year, Ballas said she will “never feel completely safe again” after being targeted by a stalker who accused her of killing a member of her family in an interview with the Sunday Mirror.
The professional dancer has also worked to raise awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties, after her mother Audrey was diagnosed in 2022.
