Strictly's Shirley Ballas hires PA who 'syphons through' hateful messages sent to her

ok.co.uk:

Strictly Come Dancing's head judge, Shirley Ballas, has revealed that she's hired a personal assistant to help her deal with nasty messages.

The 63 year old dance pro, who is currently judging the 21st series of the BBC One show, has previously spoken about being targeted by online trolls.

During an interview on Channel 5 News, Shirley was asked if she's gotten better at handling the "horrible stuff" on social media.

Speaking to Dan Walker, who placed fifth on Strictly in 2021, she said: "I think with the social media, yes." She added: "This year I've taken on Harry as a PA, and also syphons through all those really unbelievable messages that you couldn't even repeat to a human being." Shirley also spoke about how hard it can be to avoid mean messages, saying: "Unfortunately they come up, you know, if you're scrolling or you're looking or, you know, when I did my Sky challenges for (charity) Calm, they come up and I'm trying to help people as well, so I don't want to just ignore all the good people, 'cause there's more good people than bad people." To raise funds for suicide prevention charity Calm, Shirley took part in a Skyatholon challenge in August which included a zipline, wing walk and 13,000ft skydive.