STRICTLY Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas recently revealed that she has hired a personal assistant to "syphon through" the onslaught of hate messages sent to her.

The Wallasey-born 63-year-old former professional dancer sits alongside Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood and Anton du Beke on the BBC programme's judging panel.

However, despite being loved by most fans, she recently revealed on Channel 5 News that she has had to deal with some "horrible stuff" on social media.

Strictly's Shirley Ballas reveals she's hired an assistant to 'syphon through' hate mail

The Strictly Come Dancing judge told Dan Walker, who came fifth on the BBC show in 2021: "I think with the social media, yes.

“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.”

Explaining how difficult it is to avoid hate messages online, Shirley Ballas said: “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.”

Helping to raise money for suicide prevention charity Calm, Ballas undertook a Skyatholon challenge in August, seeing her zipline, wing walk and skydive 13,000ft up.

The former ballroom dancer also spoke about her new book Murder On The Dancefloor which was co-written with Sheila McClure.

The book follows dance superstar and world champion Lily Richmond and private investigator Susie Cooper as they try and solve a murderer's identity.

She said: "I’ve lived it. I’ve been part of it… not the murder part but everything else that went with it, you know the backstabbing.

“And it’s such a competitive industry and people will do whatever they need to do to get wherever they need to go.”