Shirley Ballas has revealed that she knew something was wrong with Len Goodman, the last time they met one year ago.
The Strictly Come Dancing icon sadly passed away over the weekend after a battle with bone cancer, and during an appearance on Loose Women today, Shirley paid tribute to her former colleague and friend, writes The Mirror.
Shirley took over as head judge on the BBC dancing show, after Len's decided to quit. He then went on to appear on the US version, Dancing With The Stars, before stepping back from the role last year.
The professional dancer has now recalled the last time she saw her friend a year ago and how she didn't think things were right with him.
Speaking on Loose Women, she said: "I think it's very difficult for all my particular industry because I separate Strictly and Dancing With The Stars. But I've known Len from a very small child and I have a lot of good friends in the industry and we all loved Len.
"He was a really big part of our lives and he was an icon and humour. He could make the rain go away and he was such a beautiful human being. Of course later in my career I trained with him. He was probably responsible for you know, saying to me, 'Shirley, you can take your work seriously, but stop taking yourself so seriously' because I was such a person that wanted to learn all about the technique. And he taught me more about the human spirit. So and I will take that with me forever. He was just so wonderful."
Shirley said the last time she saw him was when she flew to America to see her son.
She added: "I went to see the launch show last year when Mark decided he was going to do Dancing with the Stars and I saw Len there and I got my last and final cuddle with him there, even though he had got quite frail, I thought, because I hadn't seen him in a while."
She admitted he didn't look his best: "He was still full of humour. I kind of felt like he didn't look the best that I had seen."
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