Strictly judge Shirley Ballas says she has faced more online bullying than ever before

Ballroom dancer says most of the abuse is from younger fans of the show

Shirley Ballas has opened up about online bullying, revealing that she has received more abuse during the current series of Strictly Come Dancing than ever before.

The ballroom dancer, who took over from head judge Len Goodman on the BBC One series in 2017, said she has received an influx of abusive direct messages, most of which are from younger viewers.

“I've had more online bullying this time than I've had in any series of Strictly, particularly direct messaging, more so from the younger fans if their chosen one gets sent away,” Ballas said during an appearance on BBC Breakfast.

”It's, 'I hate you, die, go kill yourself' – those types of messages in my direct message box."

The judge continued by explaining that the severity of the messages she receives makes her feel concerned for the younger generation.

“My concern is not so much for myself, it's for the younger people out there,” Ballas said.

“If they do that kind of bullying online, what do they do in the workplace, what do they do at the school? So my concern is always for the younger generation.”

Ballas's partner, Daniel Taylor, appeared alongside her to talk about the online bullying and described it as “very nasty”.

“I'm always saying to Shirley to try and ignore it if you can but sometimes it's very, very difficult to sort of look away from it, some of it gets quite personal and its sad,” Taylor said.

Ballas went on to explain that she had not previously experienced "this kind" of social media bullying, adding: "It's so personal. It's about your body, it's about your face, it's so many things.

“I couldn't even repeat some of the things that are said because...I mean we're talking like really personal, and that's because you send somebody home and that's my job.”

The 59-year-old added that as a judge on the Strictly panel she has no favourites among the contestants and that deciding who to send home is just part of her job.

“I love them all, may the best man win,” she said.

"The BBC put on an absolutely spectacular show and people should focus on that. We have to send somebody home and if you (the public) put them in the bottom two, that's my job. Vote if you don't want them in the bottom two!"

During last weekend's Blackpool Tower spectacular, Michelle Visage and her partner Giovanni Pernice were voted off the show after landing in the dance-off alongside Saffron Barker and AJ Pritchard, who were saved by the judges.

Ballas told BBC Breakfast that she thought it was one of the best Strictly has ever had at the Tower Ballroom.

"Everybody brought their A-game. It was so difficult to see anybody go home, you know we're all in love with Michelle and it was so sad that we had to let anybody go at all," Ballas said.

"It's hard from here on in, it gets tougher and tougher."