Janette Manrara has opened up about the message she sent to her former Strictly Come Dancing partner, Will Bayley, after he made a series of shocking allegations about his time on the series amid the show’s ongoing scandal.
Paralympian Will Bayley appeared on the BBC dancing series in 2019 and was forced to withdraw six weeks in after tearing his knee ligaments in rehearsals.
Bayley said the injury, which occurred when his professional partner Manrara made him redo a jump after a “rubbish” attempt, has resulted in an excruciating pain he will live with “forever”.
Manrara has now revealed the content of messages sent between her and her former dance partner in the aftermath of the claims emerging.
“I messaged him [Will] because we are really good friends. He immediately said: ‘I’m so sorry, it’s not meant to look like that. I don’t want you to feel like it’s you,’” said Manrara.
She said she responded with a simple two-word message: “It’s OK.”
“I enjoyed dancing with him so much,” Manrara toldThe Sun, “It’s the only time I’ve actually ever cried on Strictly, when we did our Couple’s Choice. It was a dedication to Great Ormond Street Hospital.”
The popular dancing contestant, once famed for its wholesomeness, has been embroiled in scandal as two professional dancers, Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima, have been axed due to their conduct in training.
Asked if she was shocked to hear of the allegations emerging, Manrara stated: “Yes and no. I was shocked, because you just never want to hear that.
“But it is a dance show, it gets physical and it is a competition. There is intensity that sometimes happens in the rehearsal rooms. Everybody wants to do their best. Every professional pushes themselves, but it should always be in a positive way.”
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Bayley, a table tennis player, said he was forced to complete a jumping dance move with straight knees due to having arthrogryposis, which prevents certain limb movements – but he fell to the ground and immediately felt “horrific pain”.
“We practised a few times and I was really careful,” he told The Sun. “But then Janette said my jump was ‘rubbish’ and I needed to smile more and go for it and show a bit of passion.
“I was lying on the floor thinking my whole career was over. I heard my leg crack, I couldn’t breathe.”
Bayley said he “didn’t have an issue” with Manrara, who now co-hosts Strictly companion show It Takes Two, but attributed the blame to the pressure the show’s producers put on the professionals.