Aljaž Škorjanec returned to Strictly Come Dancing last year after five years away. He made it through to the final alongside former Love Island star Tasha Ghouri, but lost out on the glitterball trophy to Scouse comedian Chris McCausland and his partner Dianne Buswell.
The professional dancer explained his reasoning for leaving the show was non-negotiable as he wanted to be a "hands-on" dad to his daughter Lyra, who he shares with his wife and former Strictly pro Janette Manrara.
The 35-year-old Slovenian dancer returned to the BBC show in 2024 after taking a short break following the birth of his child. Alongside his wife Janette, who hosts Strictly: It Takes Two, Aljaž has documented his chaotic life in the short film 'Dancing Through Change' which was released on YouTube on Mother's Day 2025.
The couple are currently juggling their busy dancing schedule while bringing up 21-month old Lyra. Speaking at a private screening for the film Aljaž shared his thoughts about leaving Strictly Come Dancing.
He said: "I always knew that I have love to give being a dad, but then equally, I knew that if I want to be a dad, when that happens, that's all I want to do.
"And every single person that I'm close to was thinking I'm crazy for leaving Strictly, but to me, it was irrelevant, because I knew that, you know, with the schedule that you get every summer, with being on the show, it was impossible for me to be hands-on, which is what I wanted to do.
"And I completely put that aside. And little did I know back then, that saying no, I was gonna be the only one that ever gets to come back and have the best of both worlds."
Janette, meanwhile, spoke about being trolled for going back to work when Lyra was a newborn. She was keen to share her side of the story and wanted to normalise different styles of parenting.
She said: "There's always the trolls that have their opinions, and basically, they were just saying that it was too soon. I don't look like I need to work. I don't look like I have the life that requires me to work. And I normally don't really care what trolls say.
"What it made me think is how sad that in 2023 [at the time], in society, we still have this mentality that women shouldn't go back to work, or that, you know, the woman stays at home, and the father is the one that goes to work.
"And that is so, so not the reality for so many parents out there a lot of parents, the mother has to go back to work. In my case, I needed to go back to work and I wanted to go back to work because I felt, as a woman, if I didn't do me, I was never going to be happy enough to be a good mom."
This was the main reason for the couple wanting to create their short film which was released earlier this year. Janette continued: "So that kind of really stemmed and pushed this, if I'm honest.
"So I thought there's not enough stories out there of women saying how happy they are to work and provide for their children and be good mothers at the same time. So yeah, it bothered me, but more than anything, made me sad that, like, that's still kind of a conversation we are even having."
Aljaž and Janette believe you can "have it all" when it comes to working and parenting, but not at the same time. She said: "Aljaž and I, when we found out we were going to have Lyra, we really decided we're gonna go co-parent. We're gonna do this together. So he's gonna go off to work and I'm gonna stay and, you know, vice versa.
"We're just gonna do this as a team. And every family is different. For some families, the mother is the one that stays home, for some families it's the father, there are same-sex couples that have children.
"You know, it just really depends on your personal family situation. And that's why I thought we cannot sit and judge each other, because every single family and every single situation is different."
