Shirley Ballas realised Len Goodman was sick after seeing him for the last time and hugging him.
Shirley travelled to the United States to see Dancing with the Stars. Her son Mark Ballas is a professional dancer on the programme, and Len serves as a judge.
‘I got my last and final cuddle,’ she remembered on Loose Women. Even though he’d got ‘quite frail’, he was ‘full of humour.’
‘He loved a cuddle,’ she added.
‘I felt like he didn’t look the best that I had seen.’
Shirley opted to keep her ideas to herself, stating that they keep things well guarded in the dancing world: ‘We protect our own.’
Shirley, 62, took over as head judge on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 and the couple were never on the show at the same time.
Shirley has been confirmed for the upcoming series, and she adds, ‘Every step of this series, which I’ll do with Strictly, I’ll be thinking about him.’
Shirley became tearful at this point.
Len, who died on Saturday at the age of 78 following a brief battle with bone cancer, had a profound influence on her life.
Because they were both in the dancing profession, they had known each other since she was nine years old.
Shirley was full of praise for Len, and their close relationship was clear through her poignant words: ‘He could make the rain go away. He was such a beautiful human being.’
Before she started at the BBC, Len reminded her of the same excellent advice he’d been giving her for years: ‘You shouldn’t take yourself too seriously.’
Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV.
