Strictly’s Janette Manrara opens up on mental health struggle as she reveals ‘I knew something was wrong’
STRICTLY Come Dancing’s Janette Manrara has spoken out about her inner demons and not ‘feeling good enough’.
Opening up during an interview with Naga Munchetty on BBC Sounds, the presenter revealed the darkness she felt when she first moved to the UK and joined Strictly in 2013.
Professional dancer Janette, who is married to Strictly’s Aljaž Škorjanec, was paired with fashion designer Julien Macdonald but the pair bowed out in Week Four.
She revealed: “I wasn’t being myself when the series ended. I wasn’t being myself even throughout the series.
“I was putting a face on in my personal life with my friends, with my family, and I just didn’t feel right.
“I knew that I just wasn’t happy and that there was something wrong.
“And when the series ended, Aljaz went on to do a Strictly Live tour and that was even tougher, because then I was alone.
“He was away for five weeks – I was in a new country, away from my family – and I went back to do Burn The Floor, and then I found myself again.
“I was like, Oh, this is what I’m good at. This is what I do. This is why I am on solid ground.
“And immediately I started having those conversations with myself that I remember having when I auditioned for a TV show back in the day called So You Think You Can Dance and I felt the same feelings – not being good enough, not being able to make it.
“But then I got on So You Think and I got all the way to the final ten and then I got all the way into the tour.
“I travelled all across the UK so I kind of channeled those thoughts again saying it’s not the all end. You’re here for a reason. They hired you for a reason.
“You are good enough and the first year of Strictly that you had is not a reflection of how capable you are of your job.”
The mum-of-one urged: “Our internal dialog is so crucial for survival and changing the internal dialect was what made me come back the second year and really have a different perspective towards the whole thing.”
The 41-year-old recently hinted her marriage has been tested by her husband’s busy schedule, which makes it difficult for him to be home as much as he would like.
Janette and Aljaž thrilled fans when they welcomed their baby girl Lyra last July.
Aljaz and Janette got engaged in 2015 and then married on July, 15, 2017.
The pair had an astonishing three weddings in various locations, including Slovenia and Disneyland. They’d been together for six years before that.
Janette quit her job as a professional dancer on Strictly two years ago so she and Aljaz could try for a baby.
Since then she’s been made host of Strictly’s spin-off show It Takes Two.
Meanwhile, Aljaz has continued on the Strictly dancefloor, this year in a couple with Love Island star Tasha Ghouri.
Aljaz had been away from the Strictly dance floor for two years before his return this September.
The Sun previously told how the Slovenian, 34, agreed to go after a fiery incident on a boozy night out on the 2022 live tour.