Janette Manrara has spoken emotionally of her love for husband Aljaz Skorjanec – and now unearthed pictures capture a time when the couple were “slowly falling in love” but not yet realising it.
The star, who celebrated her milestone 40th birthday last week, first met her beloved back in 2010 when the pair were rehearsing in a London dance studio for the Burn The Floor tour.
Aljaz previously shared he fell in love at first sight and was regularly “begging for a date”, it took longer for Janette to reciprocate his feelings – and her own experience was of gradually falling for him.
In fact, she revealed that she was one of the few people in Aljaz’s circle that hadn’t been instantly attracted to him.
“We met in 2010, I’d just moved to London and I was rehearsing when Aljaz came in, looking like Prince Charming. Everyone just froze in awe… except for me,” she recalled to Prima magazine.
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“I was so focused on travelling the world and living my best life, I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.”
Within months, however, Aljaz’s persistent approach to wooing her paid off – and an adorable throwback snap to the earliest moments of their romance shows Aljaz planting a kiss on her cheek while an almost unrecognisable Janette smiles comfortably at the camera.
In another photo, Janette can be seen throwing her arms around her beau while the pair pose for a photo with Abbey Clancy’s husband Peter Crouch.
Abbey and Aljaz had won Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 during Aljaz’s debut series as a pro dancer on the show, while Janette also joined for the first time that same year.
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Meanwhile, the time of their engagement back in 2015 is also captured in a heartwarming photo where an open-mouthed Janette is showing off her ring for the first time ever.
For his part, an overjoyed Aljaz is holding up a plate filled with delicious food, with the word “Congratulations” written on it in chocolate sauce.
Meanwhile, Janette, who tied the knot with her beau in 2017, shared another emotional moment when she celebrated their 11th anniversary together in a post on Instagram last year.
“Today is our 11 years of dating anniversary! This photo was one of our first ever photos together when we were just friends on tour w/ @burnthefloorofficial 12 years ago, traveling the world, dancing, not even realising that we were slowly falling in love,” she wrote.
She continued to her 597,000 followers: “And now we’re right back to where it all began; doing those same dances w/ some of our best friends, married and in love. Life really does have a funny way of being magical.
“I love you Bučko! To many, many more dating anniversaries and dances together!”
Meanwhile, Janette has even revealed in an extraordinary insight that the pair credit Strictly for helping to save their relationship all those years earlier, hinting that without the show their marriage might never have taken place at all.
“He was going to possibly have to move back to Slovenia and I was going back to Los Angeles, and we were going to try the long-distance thing and see what happened,” she revealed to The Sun.
“We got engaged on Strictly, we got married while being on Strictly. For us it’s always been the biggest Strictly blessing instead of a Strictly curse, and we owe everything to the show really!” she explained.
Now Janette and Aljaz have moved their relationship to the next level by becoming mum and dad together to baby girl Lyra Rose, who was welcomed to the world in July.
Janette is now juggling her It Takes Two presenting commitments with raising a baby, while Aljaz has had long spells of being a hands-on stay-at-home father to help his wife in her bid to go back to work.
Aljaz and Janette appear together on their Dancing in A Winter Wonderland tour, which concludes on December 8 at the London Coliseum.
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