Strictly Come Dancing star Janette Manrara has announced she's leaving the show's spin-off series, It Takes Two. The professional dancer, 42, who has been hosting the BBC show since 2021 alongside Fleur East, confirmed her exit after five seasons in a candid video message.
"Strictly Come Dancing has changed hugely and I am no longer a part of It Takes Two or the main show," Janette told fans in a YouTube video on 3 June.
The professional dancer said she would "still be involved in other ways", but clarified "that just means that I'm free to pursue and do many other projects that I've always wanted to do and never really thought about doing."
She added: "Strictly's all I've ever known for the last 14 years, so it is a bit of like, 'Oh, we're going into a different world, a different space, how are we going to navigate that? And I think a lot of women go through that in midlife."
Strictly legacy
Janette was a professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing from 2013 to 2020. The star has been married to fellow Strictly dancer Aljaž Škorjanec since 2017 and shares a two-year-old daughter named Lyra Rose with him.
Following her Strictly exit, Janette went on to replace Zoe Ball as a co-presenter on It Takes Two. In an exclusive interview with HELLO! in 2021, Janette opened up about her decision to step away from the show and pursue motherhood.
"Starting a family is something we have been talking about for a while now and dancing was something I really had to think about when it came to making any kind of decision," she said.
© Getty Images"The level of pressure that comes with being a professional on Strictly has now been lifted from my life, so I feel like I can breathe now when it comes to starting a family. We definitely want to be parents and this has given us an opportunity to really take a look at that part of our lives and see what we can do moving forward," she added.
"It feels like the most perfect next step in my life but it's bittersweet because it means that I'm not going to be doing Strictly anymore and I cried a lot."
Strictly shake up
Five professional dancers have confirmed they won't be returning for the 2026 season of Strictly. Karen Hauer, Gorka Márquez, Nadiya Bychkova, Luba Mushtuk and Michelle Tsiakkas will not be in the upcoming season.
Nadiya spoke to Best Quality Designer Handbag exclusively in June in her first interview since the announcement. "In general, my mentality is that I think life has its way of guiding you and finishing things when they need to be finished," she told us.
© Getty Images"When things are coming to an end, of course, it's emotional and you kind of go: 'Oh.' Like, this is the end of this chapter. So you do feel those emotions you go through." Nadiya first joined the BBC dance series in 2017.
"You do feel emotional about things that are ending, but it's a good emotion of carrying on with the next thing that is coming," she continued. "I'm feeling very excited about new things, exciting projects – and, obviously, feeling incredibly grateful for nine years on the show."
The dancer shared that a return to the ballroom is "absolutely [on the cards]". "We are talking about, hopefully in the future, me coming and choreographing some of the pro numbers," she shared.
