Janette Manrara has been seen alongside former Strictly Come Dancing co-stars for a sweet reason, weeks after confirming her exit from the show. The dancer and presenter celebrated her daughter Lyra Rose's third birthday with a Princess-themed garden party over the weekend.
Janette joined Strictly in 2013 as a professional dancer, leaving in 2020. The following year she took over from Zoe Ball as host of It Takes Two, alongside Rylan Clark and later Fleur East. Her husband, Aljaz Skorjanec, has been confirmed to be returning to the pro line-up this year.
Exit from It Takes Two
It had been widely rumoured that It Takes Two would face the axe in its current form, and Janette confirmed in a YouTube video in June that she had left the series. She said: “Strictly Come Dancing has changed hugely, and I am no longer a part of It Takes Two or the main show. I’ll still be involved in other ways. But 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. Strictly is all I’ve known for the last 14 years, so it is a bit like, ‘Oh, we’re going into a different world, a different space, how are we going to navigate that?’”
Birthday celebrations
Over the weekend, some of her former co-stars joined Janette and Aljaz to celebrate Lyra's third birthday. Pals including Katya Jones, Luba Mushtuk and Alexis Warr shared photos and videos from the party. Luba has left Strictly as a professional ahead of the 2026 series.
One sweet photo showed Aljaz with Lyra Rose on his shoulders, standing alongside former Strictly pro Kevin Clifton, who had his daughter Minnie on his shoulders. Minnie is Kevin's daughter with documentary maker and former Strictly partner Stacey Dooley. “Girl dads,” Janette wrote alongside the image with a heart emoji.
Lyra's birthday officially fell on Tuesday, July 28. Aljaz shared a video of the birthday girl dancing to Pharrell Williams's “Happy” while wearing a party hat and surrounded by balloons. “Our little ‘sonček’ is 3 today! We kicked things off with a cake and a boogie!” he captioned the post, which Janette reshared, showing herself dancing with her daughter.
