‘we fell in love all over again by not dancing together’

Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two’s Janette Manrara on keeping the magic alive with husband Aljaž Škorjanec, manifesting her presenting job and becoming happier in her own skin

She’s waltzed back onto our TV screens for a second stint presenting Strictly spin-off It Takes Two.

But what viewers won’t know is the emotional journey that Janette Manrara has taken to get there.

During lockdown, the 38-year-old professional dancer, who is married to fellow pro Aljaž Škorjanec, secretly went through a low period and, from there, says she manifested her new presenting career.

“Like anybody else that struggled in lockdown, I did a lot of self-reflection,” she says during our Halloween cover shoot in east London. “I hadn’t had that time to myself before to really take a step back and think about my feelings. When you do a show like Strictly, life is literally go, go, go and you don’t have time to think.

“I had never really been home and I was reflecting, asking myself, ‘Am I happy?’ It was scary. I wasn’t dancing on stage and that’s all I’ve known.

“So I put it out there as my manifestation that one day

I’m going to present, one day I’m going to host. Literally a couple of months later I got

It Takes Two.”

Born in Miami, Janette worked in a bank for several years before she got her break on the US version of reality show So You Think You Can Dance in her early twenties. She went on to dance with Jennifer Lopez and on the TV series Glee before landing Strictly with Aljaž in 2013.

Now hosting alongside Rylan

Clark, Janette is watching this year’s drama from the sidelines. Not that she’s any less invested – and she’s been moved by two contestants in particular.

Comedian Jayde Adams is inspired by her late sister, Jenna, who had an inoperable brain tumour, and former footballer Tony Adams suffered from a mental breakdown.

“I’ve been in tears for Jayde and Tony – to come out and be that brave every week when they’re going through so much,” she says.

“As the conversation around mental health has become the norm, celebs are no longer afraid to talk about their feelings and to lose yourself in music is one of the best forms of therapy you can have.”

Meanwhile, Janette is