Shirley Ballas risked life & limb on Celeb Bear Hunt as she vows to challenge herself ‘until I’m in a wooden box’
Shirley Ballas has opened up on the real reason she signed up for TV’s toughest new show Celebrity Bear Hunt.
Speaking to The Sun’s TV Mag while the terrible fires are raging in Los Angeles, where her son Mark and Derek and Julianne Hough, who she fostered as children, live.
“They’ve all been evacuated,” reveals the 64-year-old Strictly Come Dancing judge.
“The fires are everywhere, it’s shocking. You can’t really comprehend what’s happening, it’s just staggering.
“So that’s been on my mind all day at work. But anyway, I’m delighted to be here talking about Celebrity Bear Hunt – it’s a bit of light relief for me.”
Talking about it, that may be, the show itself was far from light relief.
Hosted by Holly Willoughby, the eight-part competitive reality series sees 12 celebrities – including Shirley – dropped into the Costa Rican jungle, where they’re subjected to all manner of tough physical challenges.
In each episode, the celebs who perform worst face the ‘Bear Hunt’, in which survival king Bear Grylls (top right) attempts to track them down as they race through a vast stretch of critter-filled jungle known as the Bear Pit.
So why would Shirley, who’s more used to the glitz and glamour of the Strictly ballroom, want to put herself through such a punishing ordeal?
“I’ll be 65 this year and in these however many years I have left, I wanted to put myself outside the box and do things that perhaps I never would in ordinary life,” she says.
“I don’t like jungles. I don’t like snakes, I don’t like spiders and I certainly don’t like those ants that when they fall on you they bite you half to death.
“But the day I stop challenging myself will be the day they put me in the wooden box.
“We have such a short space of time to be here, life is but a fleeting glance. I want to take advantage of every possible thing that I can.
“The Masked Singer, for example, which I did last year, was way out of my comfort zone – but no more so than Strictly is for the people who go on that.
“They’re drowning in their own fear, some of them, and that’s a little bit how I was when I did this.”
Her natural enthusiasm meant that Shirley, who was born in Wallasey, Merseyside, was more than ready to muck in with her fellow contestants – despite the discomforts and a base camp (above) left partially open to the elements.
“Living with 11 other celebrities in the same room, that was a challenge because I’m a neat freak,” she says.
“My kitchen has to be tidy. I took on the mother role a little bit, I was smartening up people’s beds – not because I had to but because I like everything orderly.
“I’m not a diva. I’m working-class, I come from a housing estate. I’ve done well for myself, but I don’t need people carrying my bags.
“I don’t need people making my tea. When someone tells me I should be there at nine o’clock, I’m there at quarter to nine. I don’t require anybody to take care of me. I can take care of myself.”
Although the show pushed her to her limits, Shirley – who tragically lost her brother David to suicide in 2003 – says her resilience helped her through.
“I’m more resourceful than I think,” she shares.
I don’t require anybody to take care of me. I can take care of myself”
Shirley Ballas
“First of all, I didn’t need a mobile phone. They took them off you, so that was detoxing. I’ve never needed a lot to live.
“I’ve moved 28 times. If you said tomorrow I was going to move, I could pack my bag and go. So it was easy for me to settle in with the few things we had.
“When my brother passed, I had to drive up north.
“I stayed there for two weeks and had a small backpack. I realised that I didn’t really need anything in life.
“You only need your loved ones, they’re the most important things.
“You come in with nothing, you go out with nothing. There’s no pockets in that coffin.”
Shirley says that although Mark, Derek and Julianne were excited when she told them that she was doing Celebrity Bear Hunt – “They all gave me tips” – her 87-year-old mother Audrey wasn’t quite so pleased.
“My mother went to her room, closed that door and wouldn’t come out, she was so upset,” Shirley admits.
“‘You’re going to get bitten by a snake, you’re too old, you’re going to hurt yourself,’ she said.
“It was all: ‘What if this, what if that?’ I think it took her a good 24 hours to come around to it – and even in the end, I don’t think she really did. She was glad when I eventually came home.”
“I learned that it’s okay to be on my own.”
Shirley Ballas
It’s been a difficult few months for Shirley.
Not only has she been concerned about her loved ones out in Los Angeles, but in November her six-year relationship with actor Danny Taylor came to an end.
Fortunately, Celebrity Bear Hunt has taught the star some important lessons about herself.
“I learned that it’s okay to be on my own,” she says. “When the other celebs had to go off and do challenges, I would go and sit by the sea, and actually it was quite reflective.
“I think I’ve been a bit co-dependent with the people around me. So, come what may, I will survive on my own, with or without you. If you want to be on my team, good for you, and if you don’t, that’s okay too.”
As for the future, Shirley wants to devote as much time as she can to her 15-month old grandson, Banksi, the child of her son Mark and his wife BC Jean.
“Mark was so gracious when I went over to LA this time,” she says. “I actually got to bathe my grandson, and feed him, because they were busy.
“The last time I went, they were always around. He is my goal at the moment. I want to be there, I want to see him when he grows up and things like that. I’m totally in love.”