Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas has said she is “learning to love herself” again after having her breast implants removed.
The show’s Head Judge spent four-and-a-half hours on the operating table earlier this week to have her breast augmentation reversed and a potentially dangerous capsule removed.
Shirley, who will return to the Strictly panel on Saturday - just four days after her op - decided to go back to her natural A cup and remove her DD implants over concerns they might affect future mammogram exams.
Speaking to The Sun after her operation, Shirley revealed she is finally ready to accept her natural body.
She said: “When I saw my little boobies, I thought, ‘There she is’. They’re lovely. They’re all a bit swollen but I’m pleased with the breast lift he gave me. And now I’m in the process of learning to love myself after all those years.
“If I could go back to my younger self, I would never have had the implants done. I feel relieved and I feel proud for removing them now.”
Revealing she’d originally had a breast enlargement to make herself more attractive to her ex husband, ballroom dancer Corky Ballas, Shirley issued a warning to young women contemplating having the same operation.
“Do your research. I did not do mine,” she said. “I thought if I put them in I would look better and my husband would think of me as more desirable. But I didn’t know about the capsule. I didn’t know so many things.”
She added: “How many years did I waste worrying about the way I look? I’m almost 60 and it has taken me all these years. Don’t wait until you get to my age to realise that you are beautiful.”
Shirley’s decision came after she learned about her family’s history of cancer during her appearance on Who Do You Think You Are?.
She previously hailed her mum, Audrey Rich, as her inspiration, following her diagnosis with colon cancer last year.
She told The Sunday Times in September: “We are just waiting for one last check-up to see if the cancer has attached to anything.
“She doesn’t want to do chemotherapy and wants to live every day as it comes. That’s my mum. She’s my inspiration.”