Janette Manrara blamed Strictly catering crew when trying to hide pregnancy from co-stars
Strictly Come Dancing's Janette Manara took part in the show's tour shortly after she learned that she was pregnant with her first child, but she came up with a novel way of explaining her slight weight gain to her co-stars, blaming the catering.
Strictly's Janette Manara on hiding pregnancy on tour
Pregnant former Strictly Come Dancing pro Janette Manara has revealed that she blamed the "delicious food" the BBC show had on offer while on tour, in order to hide her pregnancy from her co-stars.
The dancer is expecting her first child with her husband, fellow former Strictly dancer Aljaž Škorjanec.
Although the excited couple told their families the joyous news at Christmas, the pregnancy wasn’t yet at the crucial 12-week mark.
However, she was contracted to go on the Strictly Live Tour, and now, the Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two host has revealed that she came up with some novel ways of hiding the truth from her co-stars.
“I couldn’t tell anybody, because I was waiting on the 12-week mark,” she said on the couple’s podcast Twist and Shout with Aljaz and Janette.
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“I wanted to make sure the baby was OK, that I was OK, before we started telling anybody,” she said.
“So, I wore this really big puffy yellow dress, Gail Rinkoff, my amazing stylist, she smashed it.
“I told her that I needed something to hide [the bump],” she laughed.
That wasn’t the only tactic she employed however, as she continued to explain.
“I kept blaming the delicious catering - I kept blaming the catering about feeling bloated and feeling big,” she admitted.
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Despite this, she confessed that some of the other dancers suspected, forcing her to enlist the help of friends to keep up her pretence.
“I think some of the pros that know me really well, know how much Janette Manara loves a drink after a show.
“And…I wasn’t drinking at all and…there was a little bit of speculation,” she mused.
“Robbie [Kmetoni] was on tour and Robbie knew that I was pregnant, so Robbie was kind of my wingman,” she revealed.
“And Summer, who's my friend, who’s my makeup artist, they both knew.
“So they were like my wingman and woman helping me hide it, taking a shot for me if there were shots going round.
“But I managed to keep it secret for the whole Strictly Live Tour,” she said.
Janette is now officially on maternity leave having performed her final show last Thursday. She took to her Instagram to post a video announcing the news.
“Just finished our last show with the Disney100: The Concert team,” she said.
She panned the camera down to her baby bump and said: “We did well, didn’t we? We did! It was dancing the whole way through tonight as if it knew mommy had her last big show today before you come."