{"id":110172,"date":"2025-09-02T22:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/110172\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T22:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:57:12","slug":"shirley-ballas-felt-disdainful-stares-at-dads-funeral-after-painfully-honest-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/110172\/","title":{"rendered":"Shirley Ballas felt ‘disdainful stares’ at dad’s funeral after painfully honest admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXCLUSIVE Shirley Ballas has opened up about the funeral of her estranged dad who walked out on the family when she was two, in her gripping new memoir Best Foot Forward<\/p>\n

18:33, 02 Sep 2025Updated 18:34, 02 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

\"ShirleyI was hit with disdainful stares at Dad’s funeral after sharing truth about him(Image: Reach PLC \/ Matt Monfredi)<\/p>\n

TV star Shirley Ballas <\/a>got \u201cdisdainful stares\u201d from her estranged dad\u2019s family at his funeral after she described him as a deadbeat.<\/p>\n

In her gripping new memoir<\/a>, Best Foot Forward, she writes: \u201cI was waiting to feel something, to have any sort of reaction to his passing despite everything that had gone before, but none came.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to his funeral where I felt certain people were looking at me\u2026 there were definite disdainful stares in my direction, probably because it was shortly after my autobiography had been released where I\u2019d described him as a deadbeat dad.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of me is sorry I ever put that line in the book as I know it looked terribly stark in print, but I\u2019m always honest and that was my truthful experience of him as a father.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Shirley Ballas breaks off toyboy engagement after fianc\u00e9’s sudden disappearance on her birthday<\/a>\"ShirleyShirley Ballas was estranged from her father (Image: Instagram)<\/p>\n

She says her dad George, who was known as Andy and died in 2021 aged 83, left the family home when she was two and was largely absent.<\/p>\n

He and her mother Audrey had a \u201cvolatile relationship with explosive arguments fuelled by his drinking\u201d. She adds: \u201cOff he went and lived his life, marrying three more times after my mother divorced him. Our relationship was often so distant that it was easier to call him Andy than Dad or Daddy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still hold some anger that he didn\u2019t step up to the plate when we needed him. I\u2019m mad at him because of how he treated my mother.\u201d Shirley says she had a \u201cslight wobble\u201d at the funeral when they brought in his coffin but it \u201cpassed as quickly as it began\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ShirleyShirley opens up in her new book(Image: Reach PLC \/ Matt Monfredi)\"ShirleyBest Foot Forward is out later this month<\/p>\n

But the bad blood seemingly continued afterwards. Shirley says: \u201cHis wife died shortly after him and my auntie Barbara, his sister, phoned me. \u2018You\u2019re entitled to something of your dad,\u2019 she said. I replied: \u2018He gave me nothing when he was alive, I\u2019ll take nothing now he\u2019s dead. Give it to somebody else, I don\u2019t want it.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that I asked for was a photograph of him because I would have rather liked to have one. But they wouldn\u2019t give me one, so there you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TV star also bravely opened up for the first time about having suicidal thoughts while battling depression in her memoir.<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old admitted that she found herself \u201cheading down the same route\u201d as her brother David, who tragically took his own life <\/a>in 2003, aged 44.<\/p>\n

Best Foot Forward by Shirley Ballas, published by BBC Books on September 11, \u00a322.<\/p>\n

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