Strictly’s Janette Manrara and Aljaz Skorjanec discuss family plans

Strictly’s Janette Manrara has claimed she and husband Aljaz Skorjanec will be ‘more than ready’ to have children in the future ‘when the time is right’.

The professional dancer, 37, and her partner, 31, appeared on Wednesday’s Loose Women, where she admitted to having concerns over losing half their household income while she was pregnant and on maternity leave.

Speaking candidly on the topic, Janette said: ‘To be honest, I’ve always looked forward to becoming a mother. 

‘I think what Aljaz and I discovered in the first lockdown is how much we really are a team. When we decide to have children in the future, we will be more than ready. 

‘For anyone considering to become parents, the most important thing is mom and dad have this unity. 

‘I think Aljaz will be the most incredible dad and yeah, when the time is right we will be more than ready.’

Sharing how she’d love to return to the show after having a child, Janette went on: ‘Hopefully I can dance to the last second and I can pop right back into dancing.

‘It is a scary choice because for me and Aljaz, we are a team when it comes to everything. 

‘If I fall pregnant, I would want to spend time with my baby and that’s the scary point, then we lose 50 per cent of the household income coming in because we do it all together, that’s the only bit that’s tricky. 

‘Those nine months to a year that we just don’t know what’s going to happen.’

Janette and Aljaz had to live separately during the 2020 series of Strictly Come Dancing because of the Covid-19 crisis, with Janette forming a bubble with her celebrity partner HRVY and Aljaz with Clara Amfo.

Of the experience, Janette told the panel: ‘Aljaz and I have been together for almost 10 years now and it was the first time we were apart for that long. Even when he’s on tour we would see each other once a week. 

‘The hardest part was seeing each other in the studio on the Friday or Saturday, that was always really tough.’

Aljaz, who joined Janette later in the interview, said they celebrated their reunion by ‘being together’ as a couple, as he admitted: ‘This year, it was a small sacrifice we had to make, other people on the show had to make huge sacrifices, being apart from their children from a long time.’

Janette went on to say they’d be happy to be isolated from each other for 70 days again if it meant they could do Strictly, as they were ‘grateful’ to have the work.

She said: ‘Strictly was such a necessity to have that joy and escapism on telly. We were so grateful to dance and make people happy, that’s what the show is all about.’

Janette and Aljaz have been happily married since 2017, they got engaged in 2015 after first meeting at a dance studio in 2005.

Of their romance, Aljaz gushed: ‘From my side it was love at first sight but from Janette’s it definitely wasn’t.’