Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Janette Manrara has candidly revealed her past anxieties about becoming a mother with husband Aljaz Skorjanec, and the heartbreak it caused her own mum. The star, who now hosts Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two, confessed that if it hadn’t been for the Covid-19 pandemic forcing her to take a break from her busy career, she may not have chosen to become a parent.
Janette made these revelations during an appearance on episode 163 of the Spinning Plates podcast with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, where she discussed her journey to motherhood and its impact on her career. Janette, 42, and her husband Aljaz are parents to daughter Lyra Rose. She recalled a time when she had to prepare her mother for the possibility that she might not become a grandmother. She said: “I knew I someday wanted to be a mum, but work was always taking over. I had the conversation with my mother and it killed her. I said, ‘Mum, I don’t know if I’m going to be a mum’.”
Janette added: “And it killed her because she loves children and she’s the most incredible grandmother now, but I just said, ‘I don’t know if I want to be a mum. I so love what I do, and I so love my job that I don’t know if I can give that up to be a mother’.
“And in that time, I did not think it was going to be possible at all to do what I do and be a mother. I just couldn’t see it happening.”
Nevertheless, Janette revealed the 2020 lockdowns marked a pivotal moment in her life, explaining: “Covid was the one that changed everything for me. I don’t know if I would have been a mother if Covid wouldn’t have hit.
“That’s when I did my wellbeing course and I got my wellbeing certification. I did the work on myself to really find out, who am I if I’m not on stage? Who am I as a human being, and as a person?
“I did a lot of reflecting, and I did a lot of deep thought, and I’m so grateful. I know it was a really tough time, and a really scary time for everyone.
“But in a bizarre way, I’m so grateful that happened because it taught me a lot about me that I didn’t even know was in there, and that’s when motherhood really hit.”
Yet Janette, who wed her Strictly colleague Aljaž in 2017, has confessed she might not provide Lyra with a brother or sister, despite acknowledging there could be drawbacks as the pair reside in the UK whilst their extended families are located in Miami and Slovenia respectively.
She told Sophie Ellis-Bextor: “I don’t think Aljaz and I will have any more children. I’m 42 this year, so the clock is ticking. I mean, never say never, we might.
“If she doesn’t have any siblings, and she doesn’t have any cousins, and she doesn’t have aunts and uncles and grandparents nearby… I grew up with such a big family. Like, Cubans, we’re just like, there was 20 of us all the time in the house.”
