Shirley Ballas has hired a social media manager to help give her an "easy ride" through the new season of 'Strictly Come Dancing'.
Shirley Ballas has hired a social media manager
The 62-year-old dancer - who took over as head judge on the show from the late Len Goodman in 2017 - has been repeatedly targeted by trolls unhappy with her critiques on the BBC Latin and ballroom show so she has enlisted expert help to keep the cruel comments hidden from her.
She told MailOnline: "I feel more prepared going into series seven than I have felt going into any other series.
"I have a new social media manager, called Harry, who is a university-trained mathematician, so he teaches maths for a living, but he's taken a year off.
"He's very skilled at social media so he will be filtering everything.
"We will be working together alongside my son who will help as well from the US. Hopefully I will have a little bit more of an easy ride this year."
With the new series of the show just weeks away, Shirley already has her glitzy wardrobe ready and waiting but she admitted she doesn't offer any of her own opinions on what the wardrobe team choose for her because she thinks they "know best".
She said: "I have a dresser called Alexandria and she does all 32 outfits for me at the beginning of the run and then I rely on her.
"I don't interfere with hair and make-up, and I don't interfere with clothing because they're the professionals and they know best."
Shirley has just returned to the UK after a week at Jason Vale's luxury retreat in Portugal, where she lost a staggering 9lbs in a week thanks to a juicing regime and lots of exercise.
She said: "I lost 9lb. Yoga is definitely something I'm going to keep up throughout the whole Strictly series. I have cleansed my system too, I do colonic irrigation, I'm up at 5am every morning.
"I wasn't there to sunbathe, I was there to take every spin class, two hours hiking up hills that would put my heart rate close to 179, that's how high we were going.
"It was a tough, tough week of hard work but I came back really rejuvenated."