JANETTE MANRARA: Losing Out on the Strictly Job Has Changed How I See Rejection

Great Company with Jamie Laing

Janette Manrara opens up about the profound emotional impact of losing the hosting role for Strictly Come Dancing. She reflects on her journ

Key takeaways

• Janette experienced significant heartbreak after being passed over for the Strictly Come Dancing hosting position.
• She navigated an IVF journey before her daughter, Lyra, was born naturally at age 39.

Main topics

• Professional rejection and resilience
• Motherhood and identity shifts

Notable quotes

I just went through the biggest rejection of my and my career.

Conclusion

A powerful testament to finding strength in one's roots and maintainin

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) I just went through the biggest rejection of my career. I sobbed for weeks, I'm not going to even begin to lie. It Speaker 1 (0:04) is probably the biggest job on TV, to host Strictly Come Dancing. I Speaker 2 (0:07) remember coming home and it was a really hard pill to swallow. When you just put it on paper, you assume, okay, I've got a shot because all the pieces were there. When Speaker 1 (0:18) they tell you don't get the job, what did you want to do? I mean... I would be fucked off. Speaker 1 (0:27) Can I ask you about the controversy with Strictly? Which one? Some professionals being too potentially aggressive with their training tactics. Speaker 2 (0:36) I'll start by saying this. Hi, I'm Jeanette Munrara and I'm in great company. The pocket rocket Speaker 1 (0:42) of the ballroom. Put your hands... together for Jeanette. I Speaker 2 (0:45) just knew I wanted to entertain. I don't know if I'd be here or doing the things that I'm doing without the support of my family, my husband. What Speaker 1 (0:52) is it like competing against Aliash? Speaker 2 (0:54) My first year on Strictly, we were in the dance-off every single week. When he won, I was so happy, I screamed. At least one of us brought it home, right? And I'm like, damn it, it wasn't me! Speaker 1 (1:04) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 2 (1:06) You became Speaker 1 (1:06) a mom at Speaker 2 (1:07) 39. I came off contraception and I had this stupid idea in my head that it was going to happen in 2.5 seconds. And I started IVF journey. We're doing this because we want more love in our life, not because we lack love in our life. It's so bizarre because once we started the IVF journey, Lyra ended up coming naturally. A lot of who you are and who you become in life matters massively on where you're born. You feel a bit like an imposter. I've experienced American, I've experienced British, but I've not experienced Cuban. Have Speaker 1 (1:35) you gone back to Cuba? No. Speaker 2 (1:37) That is kind of like my biggest goal in life is to go. Yeah. Why does that make you emotional? Speaker 1 (1:47) Jeanette Mumrara is on the show, guys. We cannot wait. Strictly Come Dancing legend. She's actually just left. She was in the lineup to host the actual Strictly show. She didn't quite get it. And she opens up about that on the episode today, plus so much more. It's a really amazing episode. Now, before we start, as our community, you guys are incredible. We want to hear more from you. So we want to know what you want to see more of. Is it better guests? Is it different parts of the show? Is it more of me? Whatever it is, let us know in the show comments because we're going to copy that. We're going to follow that. We're going to use that. Okay, and before we start, just one other quick thing. If you can please click that subscribe button. It's completely free. It does us wonders and you can join our amazing community. All right, here we go. Enjoy this incredible episode of Great Company with Jeanette Murara. Speaker 1 (2:32) So your tiredness levels, you're good? Speaker 2 (2:35) I'm great. You're amazing. You always have the best energy. No, you know why? Because I've just not slept for three years. Speaker 1 (2:40) And I'm used to it now. So now you just get on with it. She Speaker 2 (2:42) still doesn't sleep through the night. So it's fine. I think I've just cracked on. Also, fun fact, if you partied hard before you became a parent, it's easier. Speaker 1 (2:53) Thank you. That's why I think I can take it. Speaker 2 (2:57) In my Speaker 1 (2:58) 20s, I didn't sleep at all. Speaker 2 (2:59) At least now we wake up and we're not hungover. Speaker 1 (3:02) In your eyes, what makes a good coffee? Speaker 2 (3:03) I Speaker 1 (3:03) like creamy coffee. So what does your coffee order? Speaker 2 (3:06) At the moment, almond milk cappuccino. Speaker 1 (3:08) Hello. Speaker 2 (3:09) Yeah, I know. Speaker 1 (3:10) Who Speaker 2 (3:10) am I? Speaker 1 (3:11) But Speaker 2 (3:11) I do love a Café Bustelo. Oh, I'm getting Cuban now. Speaker 1 (3:15) You need to Speaker 2 (3:16) have a proper Cuban coffee someday. I promise. You actually don't need it now that I'm thinking about it. It is so strong. It's like 50 % sugar. Speaker 1 (3:24) So how do you say it in… Speaker 2 (3:26) Café Cubano. Speaker 1 (3:27) Café Cubano. Speaker 2 (3:28) Café Cubano. That's it. And Speaker 1 (3:30) it's that good? Speaker 2 (3:31) And it's that amazing. But I only have those on like the sleepless, sleepless nights that I get with Lyra. Those nights, those mornings, I'll have a Cuban coffee. Speaker 1 (3:38) So how many did you have in a day? Speaker 2 (3:39) I have two. Maybe three on a bad day. But Max maybe… Yeah three. Speaker 1 (3:43) Lara is your daughter? Speaker 2 (3:45) She's my daughter. She just turned three. What the actual f man. I have a three-year-old child. I sometimes still look at her and I go… How am I a mother? Speaker 1 (3:55) Who gave Speaker 2 (3:56) me that responsibility? Speaker 1 (3:58) What do you think? What do you think the… If you look at Jeanette before… Your baby and after what's the difference? I Speaker 2 (4:04) love this question because I do genuinely feel I'm the most version of myself I have ever been explain Speaker 1 (4:10) before Speaker 2 (4:10) you become a parent and this is like I think everybody's journey is totally different This is just mine. Yeah Speaker 1 (4:15) before Speaker 2 (4:16) I became a mom I was always kind of like go with the flow have fun go on the nights out do my own things Career travel do this do that, but there was an element of like but who am I really? Like who am I? What am I going to bring to the table to this world and to the planet that we live in? You know? Or to my relationship with Aliash, my husband. Or as a daughter. And Speaker 1 (4:36) you would Speaker 2 (4:36) consciously think Speaker 1 (4:36) that or no? Yeah I Speaker 2 (4:37) would. I'm a deep thinker. You Speaker 1 (4:39) would really say you would… Because I think that. Speaker 2 (4:41) But I think that's my problem. Maybe our problem. I overthink sometimes. And I would do that a lot before I became a mother. And then after I became a mother, you don't have time to overthink. There's no time. And in a lot of ways, I now feel more like myself than I have ever felt in my life. Because I know… I think I know exactly who I am and what I believe in and where I want to go and where I've been. And what I want to raise her like and what I want to teach her about. And all those kind of… Big conversations of like, well, what is it to be human? You know, and I'm getting to do that with her now. And I can't teach that to someone if I don't know it for myself first. Speaker 1 (5:15) I think I'm starting to feel the same. You stop caring about the outside world as much. You care about your world, which is here, which is really important. So you basically, in my version and my personal journey, stop caring as much what people think. Speaker 2 (5:27) Yes. Which is a great Speaker 1 (5:29) thing. And you do. You start living more authentically yourself. Because you're living for yourself rather than for what other people you want to be perceived as. Speaker 2 (5:36) Exactly. Which is Speaker 1 (5:36) kind of a beautiful way that you start to live. You start to be like, oh, you feel happier. Speaker 2 (5:42) Yeah. I mean, exhausted. But happier. Exactly that. Because you just don't have time to think about who you are. You only have time to give this. precious thing, the best version of you to give them the best chance at life. Speaker 1 (6:00) So when you were growing up, what did you want to achieve? What did you want to do? Speaker 2 (6:03) So when I was little, I was very bossy. And I would put shows on for my family all the time. I didn't know what I wanted to do specifically. Like I didn't say I want to be a singer. I want to be an actor. I want to be... I just knew I wanted to entertain. I liked putting on shows. Because it was Speaker 1 (6:19) the attention that you got as well as the kind of art of it. I Speaker 2 (6:22) don't know. I was three. I think maybe at the time attention. I just like the attention. But then also I like kind of picking the costumes and what's the story we're going to tell today. And then as I got older, I fell more and more in love with like the story side of all of it. And then when I was 12, I got a... a job actually on a TV show called Sábado Gigante which is… Sábado Gigante. Speaker 1 (6:43) Giant Saturday. Speaker 2 (6:45) It's like a variety show. It's like Sunday night at the Palladium kind of thing where they just like did a bit of everything. And they had a segment where kids would come on and like sit and talk with the host and we'd do like shows and performances and like… It was only a segment but it was on every Saturday so I was a part of that show. So I've been doing television since I was 12 which is quite wild. And I remember just thinking, I don't know what I'm going to do or where it's going to go. But I like this world of, you know, entertaining and singing and dancing and acting. And I just thought I didn't want to box myself either. I think as always as a kid, I liked ballet and then I like jazz and then I like to sing and then I like to dance and then I like to tell stories. And then I like I was a bit like here, there and everywhere. Maybe some form of ADHD and I didn't know it. Speaker 1 (7:27) But hang on, because I had a rumor that you planned to go into finance first. Speaker 2 (7:32) I did. Speaker 1 (7:32) So, and what I need, what I need, because you went to the University of Florida, right? Yeah, Speaker 2 (7:37) Florida International University. Florida Speaker 1 (7:38) International University. Your parents, were they happy for you to go down a road of this like uncertainty or do they want you to go down a route? Speaker 2 (7:47) They said plan A, plan B. Speaker 1 (7:49) Right. Plan Speaker 2 (7:50) A, go for gold. Go for gold. Chase those big dreams. Don't stop. Plan B though, have a backup plan because if it doesn't work out. You still got to pay the bills someday in life. That's such great advice. Yeah. So it was plan A, plan B. And plan A was the dream. Plan B was like, okay, what else can I do that will just give me stability in life? Or that if it doesn't work out, I can come back to it. Speaker 1 (8:13) And that was finance. Speaker 2 (8:14) And that was finance. I was really smart in school. Not smart in life. But I was like math smart, nerdy smart. Speaker 2 (8:21) I got a full scholarship. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA. Top of my class. Get out of here. Speaker 1 (8:27) Sorry. What? You nerd. That's unbelievable. I was a nerd. I am a nerd. Because I still like learning. That's unbelievable. But I Speaker 2 (8:35) graduated top of the class. Which meant I can go to any public university in the whole southeastern hemisphere of the US. Which is cool. But I remember I turned 18. Did Speaker 1 (8:44) you have a boyfriend or anything at the time? Speaker 2 (8:46) Lots. That's a book. Is it really? Aliash is very lucky. Speaker 1 (8:55) When Speaker 2 (8:55) you go to uni, I don't know if it's the same here. You have to kind of put, well, what's your major? What do you want to do? Yeah, sort of, yeah. Speaker 1 (9:01) I Speaker 2 (9:01) got there and I was like, well, I don't know. It's just got really good grades. And I remember thinking, well, I'm really good in math. And then my aunt at the time, two of my aunts were all working. We're both working at a bank. Speaker 1 (9:12) Yeah. So Speaker 2 (9:13) they were like, well, look. If you want to start working and make your own money, and you are going to university anyways, why don't you start working at the bank? You can have a bit of a job there and then you can go to university. And I was like, okay. But then the job that I got ended up being a full-time job. It was 8 to 5, 8 to 6, Monday through Friday. And my parents were like… If you're going to do that, then maybe focus on something that is in relation to the job that you have. So I was like, okay, well, if I'm working in finance at a bank, I might as well get a degree in finance. You know, talking about sliding doors, I wonder what that Jeanette would have been like. Because I didn't finish my bachelor's degree, which is always a big regret of mine that I didn't finish it. But it's only because dancing took off. Speaker 1 (9:52) So what was the sliding door moment? Speaker 2 (9:53) The sliding door moment was when So You Think You Can Dance came along in the USA and I auditioned and I got it. But I remember… Speaker 1 (10:00) And how Speaker 2 (10:00) old are you? I was 23. Which is older. Speaker 1 (10:03) But you started dancing probably when you were 19, right? Speaker 2 (10:05) Yeah. So I was doing musical theater and TV work when I was a kid first. So dancing was like… We'd have ballet like one hour a week. And then maybe like movement for actors kind of stuff. Or whatever we were doing. And then the guy that ran the dance program with the musical theater school opened up a dance school when I was 18. And he was like, you can really dance. You should really pursue this seriously. And I was like, okay. Because Speaker 1 (10:31) you could just move? Speaker 2 (10:32) No, I could move. But I couldn't… I wasn't very technical. Like I could never do what are called pirouettes. Or go on my relevé. Or have a good turnout. Or I wasn't… Technically great. I just… With salsa. Speaker 1 (10:47) But Speaker 2 (10:47) he was like, but you can do this if you put yourself to it. And I remember going, gosh, I'm almost 19 now. Like how am I going to make a career out of dancing? Is that Speaker 1 (10:55) late? So I understand. Speaker 2 (10:56) Very late. So Speaker 1 (10:57) what would someone… So Speaker 2 (10:59) Darcy Bustle started dancing ballet, I assume, at the age of like five. Speaker 1 (11:02) In Speaker 2 (11:02) like the womb. Speaker 1 (11:03) Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:04) Aliash did a frame of ballroom when he was three. You know what I mean? So it's like… I'm a bit of a late bloomer. And I remember going… That's Speaker 1 (11:12) talent. That's natural talent. Speaker 2 (11:14) Yeah. It must Speaker 1 (11:15) be. And Speaker 2 (11:16) lunacy. And Speaker 1 (11:17) drive. It's drive, lunacy. It's all of that combined. Speaker 2 (11:20) But I knew that I wanted to keep doing something. I got the university degree. I got the job at the bank. So I was like, when and how am I going to do this? So I remember from 18 to 23, I had zero life. Because I was… working normal nine to five job at the bank, going to university every evening. I remember I planned it out so I can squish like three hours of classes right after work. So I had two days in the week at least that I can go to dance. And then on Saturdays, I would spend from like 8 a.m., 9 a.m. in the morning to like 2 or 3 p.m. in the afternoon in the dance studio. Speaker 1 (11:54) Wow. Speaker 2 (11:55) And that was just for me, dancing became more than like what I wanted to do in my life. It became my therapy. To cope with exams and work and everything that I had going on in my life at the time. But then when So You Think You Can Dance came to Miami, I was 20. Actually, the first time I think I was 22. I flew actually to audition somewhere in the East Coast. I can't remember where it was. And I got all the way to the top like 100 and then to the top. I think they get… How many people? Thousands. I mean just in the city that I went in, there was 1,000 people that went to audition. And I got to the top 100 that get flown then to Las Vegas. And then out of those 100, they pick like the top 30. And then out of the top 30, they pick the top 20 that actually get on the show. The first time around, I got to top 30. And I thought I had it. And they were filming me so much. And I was like… I Speaker 1 (12:47) walked Speaker 2 (12:48) into the room and I was Speaker 1 (12:49) like… Speaker 1 (12:52) Hey, don't worry Speaker 2 (12:53) about Speaker 1 (12:53) it. Speaker 2 (12:53) Exactly. I was like, I've got this. See you everybody on TV. I was calling my family going, guys, get ready. This is going to be the most epic reveal. But then I didn't get it. Speaker 1 (13:05) Bring me back to that moment. What is it? Speaker 2 (13:07) It was the first hard, hard hitting kind of obvious no. of my life because at the time I wasn't really auditioning. I was working. I was dancing. I had big eyes, big dreams. And I was like, this is my moment. And because I got that close to the final like selection of the people that would get on the show, I was optimistic. And I just thought I had it. And you know how the TV world works. They love a bit of drama. So because I had the cameras on me all the time, I assumed it's in the bag because little did I know I was going to be the sob story of the episode. So it was really a big lesson in like what it feels like to go for something and not get it. And Speaker 1 (13:48) also I imagine you were that little girl performing. Your parents loving it. You're the best. You're the best. You're achieving everything in life. Speaker 2 (13:54) Yeah. So Speaker 1 (13:54) everything is like… Everything's been great. Everything's great. I can get this. I can do this. I can date. Like everything. Nothing. And then you get bang. That no. Speaker 2 (14:03) Massive no. And it's Speaker 1 (14:04) confusing that. Speaker 2 (14:05) Very hard to swallow. Very difficult to come out of. Because… My brain, my ego was so big because everything had been going great in terms of my career and school and everything. And I was dancing really well. Like I was at one of the peak of my dancing career, really. So I just thought I had it in the bag and then it just didn't happen. And I remember feeling really, really depressed, actually, because I had to go back to work at the bank. And like, imagine going from like... This dream opportunity to be in LA dancing every day on the TV show to, hey, hi, so how do you want to handle your mortgage this week? It was really hard, really hard. And I remember thinking the only way I can survive how I feel is if I just kept dancing. So I think I danced more than ever when that no came, but not because I wanted to go anywhere or get a goal. It was my therapy to survive. To survive having to put a brave face on and go back to my normal life and not get the dream that I wanted. It was really tough. Speaker 1 (15:08) You know, I feel so sorry for people who have done X Factor or Speaker 2 (15:12) Pop Speaker 1 (15:12) Idol or The Voice or whatever. And you have that moment of like, this is the dream. Here I am. And then boom, and it's back to reality. It's like when you're in that moment, the lights are on and everyone's there. And you're like, this is amazing. Amazing, amazing. And then when it stops… It's like someone turns the lights off, but you're still in the room. Speaker 2 (15:31) Exactly. And Speaker 1 (15:32) no one's really watching you. And no