This year's series of Strictly is in full swing; the always iconic Halloween episode has been and gone and Blackpool week is slowly but surely creeping up on us.
As the celebs and their dancing pro partners continue to battle it out for the highly coveted Glitterball trophy, the promise of the 'Strictly Curse' haunts them like some sort of home-wrecker ghost.
Here at Closer HQ we thought that now we were in week eight we were in safe territory but it looks as though heartbreak hasn't targeted a celeb or professional dancer this year but instead it has come for one of the judges.
It was recently revealed that head judge Shirley Ballas had split from long term partner Danny Taylor and now the 'Queen of Latin' has taken to social media for the first time since the news broke.
The Sun shared the news that Shirley and Danny were no more; although they became engaged in 2021 the couple announced they had called of their engagement six months ago but remained an item.
Posting a screen shot on her story of a chat between her and a close pal, Shirley told her Instagram followers, 'When you have had a tough day and you seen this smile @grundyalan you can hopefully sleep. My friend for many many years.'
Shirley had been with Danny for six years and previously chatted to Closer about the 'pressure,' of marriage.
'The only pressure I felt was my own. As my son [Mark] said, it was me who was pushing to get married,' she confessed and more recently in a chat with heat, the ballroom dancer spoke about where the couple stood in terms of their future together.
'As I sit here today, I don’t want to get married,' Shirley admitted, 'I need to not be so co-dependent. I just need to be dependent on myself.'
Here's to hoping Shirley keeps that mindset in the coming weeks.