Shirley Ballas has opened up about the bad blood she had with her late dad’s family, following his death.
Shirley’s father George, who was known as Andy, died in 2021 aged 83. However, he and Shirley had a difficult relationship as, when she was two, he left the family home and was absent for much of her life.
In her 2021 autobiography, Behind The Sequins, she spoke out about their relationship and called Andy a “deadbeat dad”.
But now, Shirley has opened up more about her father and has claimed that she wasn’t allowed the one thing she asked for after his death.
Shirley Ballas ‘didn’t feel anything’ after dad’s death
In an extract from her new book Best Foot Forward seen by The Mirror, Shirley opened up about her relationship with Andy.
“I was waiting to feel something, to have any sort of reaction to his passing despite everything that had gone before, but none came,” the Strictly head judge candidly shared.
According to Shirley, her mum Audrey and dad Andy had a “volatile relationship with explosive arguments fuelled by his drinking”.
Andy eventually went on to marry three more times after Audrey divorced him, with Shirley revealing she is still “mad” at her father over the way he treated her mum.
Shirley received ‘disdainful stares’ at dad’s funeral
However, while at Andy’s funeral, Shirley recalled that “certain people” were giving her “definite disdainful stares”. Shirley then said she thinks this is down to her autobiography, in which she branded Andy as a “deadbeat dad”.
The mum-of-one did note though that she was aware of how “terribly stark” it looked, but Shirley insisted that she is “always honest” and that was her “truthful experience of him as a father”.
After the funeral, it seems the bad blood between Shirley and Andy’s family continued.
They wouldn’t give me a picture, so there you go.
Shirley explained: “His wife died shortly after him and my auntie Barbara, his sister, phoned me. ‘You’re entitled to something of your dad’s,’ she said. I replied: ‘He gave me nothing when he was alive, I’ll take nothing now he’s dead. Give it to somebody else, I don’t want it.'”
Shirley changed her mind, though, and requested one specific sentimental item. However, she never ended up getting it.
She said: “The only thing that I asked for was a photograph of him because I would have rather liked to have one. But they wouldn’t give me one, so there you go.”
Read more: Shirley Ballas’ ‘sadness’ over split after boyfriend Danny Taylor ‘went missing’ on her birthday
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