"For somebody who loves to eat, I've really been making a lot of sacrifices. No regrets. The best revenge is looking good and looking well."



by Ricky Lo, People Asia, May 2000

If she didn't change her mind about it (and thank heavens that she did), Sharon Cuneta would be retiring from showbiz approximately seven months from now - on January 6, 2001 to be exact - when she turns 355.

"Oh yes," Sharon (Shawee to close friends) remembers, "I did say a few years ago that I wanted to retire at age 35 but that was when I was burned out and up to my neck with commitments. Now," she adds with a smile, "I'm eating humble pie. But for sure, I don't want to retire at a very old age; I wan to do so when I'm still strong and healthy enough to enjoy myself and my family. I want to lead the kind of life that Tita Susan (Roces) does. I still want to make a movie every now and then, but only when I want to. It's not going to be a complete retirement. I want to travel to my heart's content, and, that's it, enjoy life!"

And what a life Sharon is now enjoying. After a very slight slump, she's back in top form as an actress, with her latest movie, Star Cinema's Minsan, Minahal Kita (her screen reunion with ex-boy-friend Richard Gomez), was a blockbuster; her self-titled ABS-CBN early Sunday evening show is a top rater; and her family life (with husband, lawyer Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan and daughter Kaycee) has nothing more to be desired - except, admittedly, the child that the couple has been wishing and working very hard for (surviving three miscarriages so far).

Why talk about retirement when Sharon has successfully won her long-drawn battle with the bulge, shedding more than 58 pounds so far - and losing some more - without resorting to any drastic means (look, dear, no Bangkok pills, no Xenical, no liposuction, no artificial means, no nothing but simple determination and diet).

"I feel definitely lighter and happier," say Sharon as if what she feels is no very obvious on national television. "For somebody who loves to eat, I've really been making a lot of sacrifices. No regrets. The best revenge is looking good and looking well."

And living well, too.

After Minsan, Minahal Kita, Sharon plans to slow down a bit, with her next movie to be done maybe next year yet. Her new album, When I love (produced by her own newly- organized company, Mega Music), is a best-seller, promoted by Sharon in a series of concert tours that brought her to key cities around the country. Unlike her defunct musical-variety show (also on ABS-CBN which folded up to weeks before she went to Boston with Francis in 1997 for his post-graduate scholarship), Sharon doesn't demand much of her time so it's a breeze for her.

"It gives me more time to be with my family," enthuses Sharon, who'd rather stay in bed and (along with Francis, who's also a bookworm) lose herself in the latest best-seller while holding hands with Francis, or write down her thoughts in a notebook (yes, Sharon is a good writer and she's seriously thinking of pursuing a side career along that direction). "I have become domesticated, I must say."

In fact, Sharon has brought back "a slice of Boston" to their laid-back (well, sometimes) life in their sprawling new home somewhere in Mandaluyong City, meaning she enjoys to the hilt her real-life role as a wife and mother and minds her showbiz career without slipping a bit. In Boston, Sharon drove her own car to the grocery, strolled around with Kaycee and went to church with her and Francis without stirring the kind of mild commotion that she does here. How she wishes she could live the same "unperturbed" life here! An impossible wish, of course, but within the confines of her home, Sharon can unwind and feel as free as a bird in a huge, huge "cage."

In Boston, Sharon drove her own car to the grocery, strolled around with Kaycee and went to church with her and Francis without stirring the kind of mild commotion that she does here.

What she misses most about life in Boston is cooking for her family, which she still does here but very seldom. Both she still does here but very seldom. Both she and Francis are busybodies, with Francis leaving home early and, while doing Minsan, Minahal Kita, Sharon sometimes coming home with Francis fast asleep or waking up with Kaycee already off to school.

"My Mom (Elaine Cuneta) is a good cook, being a Kapampangan, and I did take after her. I grew up in a family that expected lunch to be a full-course meal. Francis himself comes from a family which loves to eat, so we match. My specially is pasta, although I bake tasty mamon, cakes and chocolate mousse because I've been doing them since I was seven."

She and Francis treat each other as equals and, more than that, as the best of friends who share many things in common - that is, besides the love of reading, they enjoy discussing issues and have a sense of humor which, according to Sharon, "is very important in strengthening a marriage."

She and Kaycee are, more than being mother and daughter, also the best of friends, with Kaycee confiding in her, not keeping any secret from her. When Kaycee did a duet with Sharon for the When I love album, showbiz intrigue-purveyors "predicted" that at long last, Sharon's "successor" has arrived - make way for Kaycee Concepcion!

No way, say Sharon.

Why not when she herself entered showbiz when she was 12, singing to the public's heart the hit song hat reverberates in everybody's memory until now (who'll ever forget Mr. Deejay!)

"Because I know the heartaches one goes through in showbiz and I want to spare my daughter. Maybe when she's old and mature enough and she's finished with school, why not? She's turning only 15 and she has more than enough time ahead of her. It's an educated decision on my part not to let her join showbiz at this time. Kaycee sings, she composes songs and plays musical instruments. She might take up a course in music and I won't stop her. But in the meantime, she should prioritize her activities and top priority is, of course, her studies. At her age, she's obsessed with music and not with boys and I thank God for that."

She has instilled in Kaycee what she has learned from her own father, former Pasay City Mayor Pablo Cuneta, from who Sharon inherited not only wealth but such enduring, qualities as stamina, word of honor and principles.

"In your death bed," Sharon says, "you don't bother yourself with how much money you have in the bank or how many awards you have won. You concern will be your family. Have I been a good mother? Have I been a good wife? Have I been a good daughter? Have I been a good sister? You'll be judged not by your goodness as a person. When somebody asks me what I'm proud of, all say is 'I'm a good person and I owe that to my father."

That's the essential Sharon Cuneta.