Strictly Come Dancing: Shirley Ballas kisses Motsi Mabuse during first live show of 2024

‘I’m shaking at all this gayness,’ one viewer joked

Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas surprised viewers when she kissed Motsi Mabuse on the first live show of the 2024 series.

The dancer and TV judge, 63, was giving feedback to the Olympic swimmer Tom Dean and his professional partner Nadiya Bychkova on their tango when the unexpected moment occurred.

Ballas asked Mabuse to stand up behind the judges’ table to demonstrate a tango hold to Dean, telling the sportsman: “It’s all in the posture.”

As Ballas took Mabuse by the hand, Anton Du Beke praised the two women and could be heard repeatedly saying “go on girls”.

In the middle of the demonstration, Ballas pecked Mabuse on the mouth, causing the former Strictly professional dancer to widen her eyes in surprise.

Strictly viewers were quick to comment on the kiss on X/Twitter, with one fan writing: “Motsi and Shirley kissing live on Strictly to give us the same sex representation we’re missing this series lmao [laughing my a** off].”

Meanwhile, another fan joked: “Omg the lesbian Motsi and Shirley. I’m shaking at all this gayness.”

Shirley Ballas kisses Motsi Mabuse on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ (BBC)

It comes shortly after Ballas revealed that she has suffered a cancer scare after being encouraged by her Strictly Come Dancing colleague Amy Dowden to attend a routine mammogram.

Ballas explained that doctors discovered lumpy tissue in her left breast after a routine examination, and she has been feeling emotional as she awaits news of the biopsy.

“I’m worried I’ve worked myself to death,” she told The Sun. “It’s been terrifying, to have the needle go in your body to numb it before the biopsy.

“I feel very emotional. I’m not the same at work at the moment, so I’m teaching, but it’s constantly on my mind.”

Craig Revel Horwood, Mabuse, Ballas and Anton Du Beke on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ (BBC/Guy Levy)

Ballas, who has judged on the hit BBC dance competition since 2017, then noted the impact of professional dancer Amy Dowden on her decision to attend her scheduled mammogram.

Dowden made a triumphant return to Strictly following a mastectomy, chemotherapy, fertility treatment and hospital care for sepsis on Saturday night (21 September).

“You are back home,” Ballas told the professional dancer after she took to the floor.

Dowden later told the show’s presenter Claudia Winkleman: “I’m so happy I could burst.”

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