12 November 2023 , 19:43
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Strictly Come Dancing star Janette Manrara has revealed her and husband Aljaz Skorjanec have an unusual living arrangement after welcoming their baby daughter, Lyra.
The 39-year-old Strictly: It Takes Two host normally lives in Cheshire with her professional dancer husband. But after returning to work weeks after giving birth - and with a ‘Dancing in a Winter Wonderland’ dance tour planned for Christmas - the couple have had to temporarily relocate down south.
Janette said the family are currently living in an Airbnb in London and have taken everything with them as they prepare for their upcoming 16-date show, which opens in Portsmouth on November 21 and travels to Blackpool, Belfast, Glasgow, London and Edinburgh before ending in Bath a month later on December 19.
Sharing an update with fans, Janette told her 600,000 Instagram followers: “Basically, what’s happened is we have rehearsals in London for three weeks before we open Dancing in a Winter Wonderland. So we got an Airbnb down in London and moved everything with us – everything for Lyra, Aljaz and I.”
Revealing various family members were also mucking in to help care for three-month-old Lyra, the new mum continued: "Aljaz’s sister came for the first week – and now Aljaz’s mother is here this week. Then my mother arrives next week and she’ll be joining us for the tour. It’s quite a manic schedule because we’ve got rehearsals all day. I’ve still got It Takes Two, and so our time with Lyra is limited at the moment.”
EastEnders' Jake Wood's snap of son has fans pointing out the pair's likeness
Janette and husband Aljaz have been married since 2017 (Daily Mirror)
They welcomed baby Lyra at the end of July (Instagram)In the same video, Janette also hit back after she was recently mum-shamed for going back to work early. Appearing in her other TV gig on BBC Morning Live, she said she had felt “excited and really empowered” about being a working mum for the first time, but had received some negative comments on social media.
She then proceeded to read a few out live on air. One said: "I know mums have to work, but I personally think this is too soon," while another wrote: "I wish celebs wouldn't normalise mums going back to work when their babies are tiny."
Defending her decision to return to work, Janette said: “I just wanted to quickly come on and say I’ve been receiving so many messages from so many parents saying how much they’ve gone through the same thing, how much they have also been shamed for some of the choices they have made. And just thanking me for saying something and speaking up about it.
“I’m just so grateful that I had the platform with Morning Live to do it because, yes, I do think it’s a conversation to be had, to hopefully change government policies to allow fathers to also be more involved. We need to change that stigma that women should be at home and men should be at work – and we just kind of accept that. I’m just really grateful that a lot of you felt touched by it and that I was able to be a voice. Thank you for all of your messages.”