Sara Davies has revealed that her husband Simon was "ratty" over her Strictly Come Dancing partner Aljaz Skorjanec - before the pair formed a sweet "bromance". Aljaz partnered up with the Dragons' Den star for the 19th series of Strictly but managed to win over Sara's husband.
It was the last time Alijaz graced the Stricly ballroom floor after he announced he was hanging up his dancing shoes in an emotional statement. The 32-year-old ballroom veteran was paired with Sara, 38, from County Durham during the popular BBC One dance competition last year, the Star reports.
The pair captured the hearts of the nation with viewers watching their blossoming friendship go from strength to strength each week. But in her new book, We Can All Make It, Sara described how her entrepreneur husband initially felt "ratty" about their relationship on the show.
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The mum-of-two admitted that she heavily relied on her husband to take care of their two children and manage their business while she trained with the world champion.
Writing in her new book, Sara says things came to a head after she failed to prepare for a crucially important business meeting because she had been "out strutting around with some dancer guy".
Now, in an exclusive interview with Daily Star, the entrepreneur has confessed that she was so "wrapped up" with Strictly that she started to neglect her husband. She explained: "I was full of all my Strictly stories, Aljaz was coming home every night and the kids just thought he was the coolest person ever.
"I realised that not once has I considered what Simon had done that week or how he had been. I thought, Oh my god, I've really got to think about what does he need through this as well and how can I support him as well?‘"
Going into the ballroom competition, the businesswoman knew that juggling work with Strictly was going to be difficult and she often relied on her husband for support and to look after their doting children while she rehearsed.
But after their first day of training, Aljaz wanted to establish a bond within the entire family unit in order to help the Dragon succeed in Strictly, and it was clear to see he had won over the businessman.
She explained: "He wanted to have that time with Simon. [After the first night] I found the two of them sitting on the sofa with a beer watching the football chatting with the kids.
"Obviously because he’s done this for nine years, he was obviously so hyper aware of, ‘If this is really gonna work and I'm gonna be able to do drive Sara to do all the work I needed to do, I need to get the whole family on board.’
"He just made the effort from day one to get that relationship [on track] and then every night, because Aljaz was staying in like a hotel 20 minutes away, Simon would drive him back to the hotel so they’d have that little bit of a chat in the car."
But what surprised Sara the most was how close the pair got behind the scenes after she realised in the fourth week of the show that the pair had swapped numbers without her knowing.
She added: "I didn’t realise they’d swapped numbers, I think it was on week four and I came in and I'd got 36, I'd got four nines for my tango. And I spoke to Simon the next morning and I said how thrilled I was, and he said, ‘Yeah, Aljaz said he was hoping for four nines’.
"And I said, ‘When did you have that conversation with him, like, I wasn’t privy to that conversation’. And it turns out the two of them have just got this little bromance kind of thing going on over here."
It was at this point that the crafting queen discovered that their friendship would last the test of time as her dance partner would often bring his wife and fellow Strictly star Janette Manrara round for a meal with the family and out for double dates.
Sara went on: "I know speaking to him that he’s done this with his other partners as well to be accepted as part of the family, but then now I look at them and I think it’s gone past that because he, you know, I'm not his job anymore.
"He’s still got that fantastic relationship with Simon and I think all testament to him for knowing what he was doing going into it."
Sara’s book, which hit the shelves this week, takes readers through her journey to success, which includes how she ran her business from her university bedroom, to becoming the youngest female investor on Dragons’ Den.
When asked what motivated her to write the book, she explained: "I want people, whether they are entrepreneurs or mums who are trying to juggle everything, to pick up my book and connect with something in it. I want them to think, if she has done that I can go and do whatever it is that I am trying to achieve."
We Can All Make It: My Story by Sara Davies was published on @8th April by Bantam Press. RRP £20.
