Shirley Ballas: Strictly judge stopped eating to appear 'slender' next to Darcey Bussell

She continued: “It was almost not eating. I cannot and will not do that to myself again. It was in my own head.

“I was going on with this most beautiful woman who I always admired, Darcey Bussell, and she was so slender and tall, so graceful.

“She seemed everything I wasn’t.”

Although Darcey, who left the show in 2018, was “lovely and really encouraging”, Shirley dropped to a size six as she nearly stopped eating.