I’ll salsa back to Strictly two months after giving birth, says Janette Manrara as she tells of battle to conceive
THEY are perfect partners on stage and now Janette Manrara is convinced she and Aljaz Skorjanec will make a formidable double act as parents, too.
So much so that she is planning to return to work just weeks after giving birth — and aims to be dancing again in a few months.
Former Strictly Come Dancing pro Janette, 39, and Aljaz, 33, had daughter Lyra Rose on Friday.
But the new mum has already planned her return to the show’s spin-off, It Takes Two — which she will present along with new co-host Fleur East — when the series starts at the end of September.
In November she will then kick off a 17-day dancing tour around the UK with her husband.
In an exclusive interview ahead of the birth, she said: “The good thing is, It Takes Two is only a couple of days a week because I’m splitting it with Fleur, so I’m not having to work five days a week 9-5 straight away. I can ease myself back into things.
“Aljaz and I will co-parent between the two of us as much as we can. We haven’t thrown the idea of a nanny out of the window, and if it gets to a point we need help, we’ll hire help.”
Cuban-American Janette and Slovenian Aljaz, 33, met while auditioning for a touring theatre show. They married in 2017 surrounded by Strictly colleagues.
‘Count my blessings’
Janette, who has partnered Peter Andre, Jake Wood and TV host and singer HRVY on Strictly, quit the show in December 2020 to try for a baby.
Aljaz, who has danced with Alison Hammond and Gemma Atkinson, and won with Abbey Clancy, left the following year.
The couple struggled to conceive and opted for IVF treatment — although Janette then got pregnant naturally.
She told The Sun on Sunday: “I was still touring a lot during that time and putting so much pressure on my body.
‘I do think there is something to be said about allowing your body and mind the rest to fall pregnant.
“You feel pressure — ‘why are we not falling pregnant?’ — and that adds another level of anxiety on top of things.
“A little bit of pressure was taken off as soon as we decided to go down the IVF route.
“We thought, ‘hopefully we’ll have a great result from the IVF and be parents, and if not, we’ll just take the next step from there’.
“As soon as we relinquished that pressure of trying to get pregnant, that’s when I fell pregnant naturally.
“There is a lot to be said for stress when it comes to getting pregnant.
“I count my blessings every single day that we didn’t have to go through the full IVF process. I was on the verge of starting the injections.”
Janette and Aljaz decided to keep the sex of the baby a secret.
They announced they had had a little girl with a candid family snap on Instagram.
The couple’s co-stars and celeb friends rushed to the comments to congratulate them, with Gemma Atkinson writing: “Just wonderful.” Former pro James Jordan added: “So happy for you both. Sending love from the Jordans.”
Asked before the birth about revealing the sex, she said: “To be honest, even I didn’t want to find out because I love the idea of on the day saying, ‘Oh it’s a boy’, or, ‘It’s a girl’.
“But I think because we don’t have any family here and it’s our first baby, and being 39, it was better to know everything we can and be in control.
“It’s been tricky keeping it a secret. I’ve had to quickly try to fix what I have said, so I don’t make it obvious.
“It’s kind of nice for Aljaz and I because everything is so out there nowadays, and we share a lot of our personal life.”
Janette and Aljaz wanted a meaningful name and eventually decided on Lyra, the constellation in the northern hemisphere which contains stars shaped like a magical harp.
She said: “It’s not really Spanish or Slovenian. Aljaz and I like names that are differ- ent and have a nice meaning behind them.
“I found the name online and I showed it to Aljaz and his eyes lit up and he said, ‘That’s it — that’s the name’.
“He fell in love with it the moment I shared it with him and before he even knew the meaning behind it.”
Janette had been able to rely on Aljaz during her pregnancy, with her husband making her as comfortable as possible.
She said: “Aljaz has just been a dream of a husband throughout the whole process.
“He cooks for me, he knows I like to keep a tidy house, so he keeps the house really neat if I haven’t had a chance to clean up.
“I’ve really enjoyed having my bump and connecting with it.”
The family will be returning to their new house in Cheshire near his former Strictly partner Gemma, her Spanish dance partner Gorka Marquez and their children.
Janette says: “Aljaz has always loved being up in Manchester from when he danced with Gemma.
“When we dance with our celebrities on Strictly we go to where they live most of the time.
“He also came up to Birmingham when he was dancing with Alison Hammond, and he always came back home and said, ‘Everyone up North is so friendly’.
“You can live a little bit more comfortably instead of the hustle and bustle and the speed of London constantly.
“Aljaz is a big football fan, a massive Manchester United fan, so I think he’s secretly hoping he’ll rub shoulders with some of the players too.”
And Janette is convinced that, as well as being a football fan, their daughter will love dancing.
She told us: “I don’t know if this baby will have a choice about dance, we’ve music on in the house all the time and Mum and Dad dance.”
‘Girl power’
Lyra will also have heard her parents’ voices regularly because they now have their own Amazon Music podcast, Twist And Shout With Aljaz And Janette, exploring the trials and tribulations of married life.
After leaving Strictly, Janette started her spin-off TV presenting job in 2021 with Rylan Clark. After he announced he was quitting in April this year, singer-songwriter Fleur, a Strictly contestant last year, was chosen as his replacement.
Janette said: “Fleur and I got really close when we did the Strictly Live tour together so when I found out she was co-host I was over the moon.
“I think she’s a brilliant presenter on the Hits Radio show she does and she is full of energy and she’s walked the path.
“She’s got all the way to the final and did the Strictly tour.
“I am excited. There is definitely feelings of girl power.
“I think Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are two of the most iconic women I can look up to, because for two women to host a prime-time Saturday night show is quite sensational.
“And as a woman, it’s quite an honour to have Fleur to join me on the weekday version.”
Unlike millions of other new mums, Janette is not worried about losing weight to get back into her trim TV outfits.
She stands just 4ft 9in and is so tiny that regular maternity clothes have been too big for her.
She says: “I’ve just gone up a normal dress size because I’m so small.
“Maternity clothes don’t fit me. I’m normally a size 4 or 6, it depends. I’m a Latina Tinkerbell.
“It’s very hard to be small and shop, there’s not many things out there for me.”
But one thing that is out there for her is the glittering career she will soon return to after having the baby she and her husband have longed for.