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Strictly judge Shirley Ballas issues health update as she reveals she’s been battling illness for six weeks

She skipped work today

Strictly judge Shirley Ballas has revealed that she’s been forced to skip work following six weeks of ill health.

The 61-year-old star provided her 236k Instagram followers with a health update earlier today (Wednesday, January 12).

Shirley Ballas Instagram story
Shirley shared an update on social media earlier today (Credit: Instagram)

Shirley Ballas issues health update

The Strictly judge took to her Instagram Story earlier today to update her followers on her health.

In the short video, Shirley can be seen lying down in bed. She had put a filter on the video of little petals continuously dropping down the screen.

“So I’m in bed today,” a croaky-voiced Shirley says in the video.

Read more: Strictly star John Whaite addresses partnership with Johannes Radebe after shock swap

“I’ve had this kind of flu-type thing now for about six weeks.”

The star quickly assured fans that she wasn’t suffering from COVID at the moment.

“I test regularly, but it’s just the flu.”

shirley ballas
Shirley’s been suffering with illness for six weeks now (Credit: SplashNews.com)

What else did Shirley Ballas say?

Shirley continued with her update on her story, reiterating that she’s been testing negative and it’s just the flu.

“I just took a day off work today to recuperate,” she continued.

“Perhaps that’s what I haven’t been doing,” she mused.

Shirley then ended her health update by poking some fun at herself. She said that she enjoyed using the filter on her video because it made her eyelashes look good.

“Because really I look like poop,” she joked. “When you put these filters on, it’s actually quite nice, but it’s not real!”

She then confessed that she never stays in bed usually. “But hey ho, here we go,” she said with a shrug.

“It [the bed] is saying to me ‘Your body needs to rest’.”

shirley ballas strictly
Shirley had a busy Christmas period (Credit: BBC)

What else has the Strictly judge been up to?

It was a pretty busy Christmas period for Shirley this year.

Not only did the star judge the Strictly Come Dancing final, but she also appeared in the Christmas special too.

However, just days before Christmas, Shirley revealed that she was “crushed” after receiving some heartbreaking family news.

The star learned that she would, yet again, have to spend Christmas without her son, Mark, by her side.

Read more: Giovanni Pernice reveals heartwarming gesture he made to parents after Strictly win

Due to the Omicron variant, the star was unable to travel to see Mark, who lives out in the US. She said that travel was out of the question for the “foreseeable future”.

It’s not all bad news, though! Back in December, it was reported that Shirley was set to get engaged to her partner, Danny, sometime in the New Year!

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Robert Emlyn Slater
Senior Writer