Shirley Ballas makes a surprising culinary disclosure

Shirley Ballas has said she has never ordered a takeaway and would “rather starve than eat a McDonald’s”.

The Strictly Come Dancing judge, 60, is to appear on ITV’s new celebrity cooking programme Cooking With The Stars.

She told the Radio Times: “I’ve never ordered in – I have never done that Deliveroo thing, ever – and I don’t eat fast food.

“I’d rather starve than eat a McDonald’s.”

Ballas said she has simple tastes in food.

“Growing up, it was always meat, potatoes, veg,” she told the magazine.

“We had a roast dinner on a Sunday. On Thursday it might be beans on toast and thenShirley ballascome Friday, it was eggs and chips because everyone had run out of money. But we always had good meals.”

She added: “My mother was what I would call a ‘plain Jane’ cook.

“It wasn’t like it is today, it was relatively simple cooking, and I think that’s probably what I like the best, to be perfectly honest.”

Ballas said her mother told her she had “no cooking skills” after she learnt she was appearing on Cooking With The Stars.

“Recently, I decided I was going to make a spaghetti bolognese, and it was like wallpaper paste it was so bad,” she said.

“When I turned the pot upside down, it didn’t move.”

Ballas said her favourite food is “a beautiful baked potato with tuna and beans, and a green salad”.

“I love that, although I don’t have it very often. And I love a piece of toast with butter on, but I don’t have that very often, either,” she added.

“My ex-husband had a thing about weight, as he was in such beautiful shape himself.

“He would just sit and stare at me if he felt that I’d eaten a portion size that was too big.

“That was always difficult, so I wouldn’t say that my relationship with food was the best.”

Cooking With The Stars will air later this summer.

The full interview is in Radio Times magazine, out now.