"Ry (Ryan Agoncillo, her boyfriend of one year) is the best thing that happened to my personal life," she coos.
It also helps that Judy Ann has joined Lorna Tolentino as the face of Forever Flawless, which takes care of its clients’ skin and body as if they’re priceless gems.
"Having a boyfriend enhances your womanhood. It’s easier now that Forever Flawless signed me up. I’ve become more conscious of my body," says Judy Ann.
It’s a far cry from the simple actress who didn’t give a hoot about how good she looked in public. She was happy looking well-groomed, period. Whispers of looking like a mamon – no matter how loud – didn’t bother her.
But now that Ryan is around, Judy Ann has taken a second look at herself in the mirror and vowed she must look fantastic for him.
And she does. Now, she appreciates the value of exfoliation, facial massages and other services to enhance her looks. Not that Ryan would mind. He has said that Judy Ann looks just as smashing in the morning, without any trace of makeup on.
Chances are, Ryan will take her for what she is, whether she’s drenched in sweat after hours of boxing sessions, or dripping wet after they go diving in some pristine beach out of town.
"I’ve never felt like this before," admits Judy Ann.
Ryan, it turns out is "the only guy who didn’t put his best foot forward before my mom."
What mom Carol saw is what she got — warts and all. Unlike other guys who courted her, Judy Ann didn’t see any trace of showbiz in Ryan. This take-me-as-I-am stance made her change her impression of Ryan 100 percent.
"I thought he was a swell head because he was always talking in English. He knows I hate guys who talk in English and it turns out he was just trying my patience," Judy Ann recalls her first encounter with Ryan up close.
They met again in Krystala, where Judy Ann discovered Ryan was not as high-brow as he looks and talks. He’d crack silly jokes that banished Judy Ann’s troubles away.
"I began to find him cute, but I held back because I knew he was committed to someone else," she recalls.
As we know by now, the coast cleared months later when Ryan and his non-showbiz girlfriend broke up.
Today, Judy Ann wears her heart on her sleeve. She brings food for Ryan on the set and asks him the English translation of Filipino words ever so sweetly — through text, phone calls or better yet, face to face.
Even her career is giving her reason to have that Cloud Nine feeling.
Judy Ann has returned to ABS-CBN’s anthology series Komiks with two episodes for its second season. The star of primetime’s Sa Piling Mo gave life to Pablo S. Gomez’s Inday sa Balitaw by playing the wacky role Maricel Soriano popularized in the ‘80s.
Judy Ann played Inday, whose life turns upside down when she finds out that she has a guardian dwarf named Boyong (Nash Aguas).
Super Gee is the second Komiks episode Judy Ann is slated to do for ABS-CBN.
More assignments are forthcoming. One of them is Aswang, a film Suzette Ranillo will direct in the US starring Nora, Tirso Cruz III (yes, it will be a reunion movie), Judy Ann and Ryan. Another is a Yul Servo starrer where Judy Ann refused to do a kissing scene out of respect for Ryan.
"Juday is like that when she has a boyfriend," observes manager Alfie Lorenzo. "She feels she can’t even hold hands with another man."
No, she and Ryan are not living in. To do so would embarrass mom Carol and Alfie. Nor are there marriage plans as yet.
"I will make sure my family is prepared when I do get married. They must already be stable by then," says Judy Ann, who turned a year older last May 11.
She is now attending to her tax case with the BIR, which is charging her P2-M worth of arrears.
"I’m planning to sell property to pay everything off," Judy Ann relates.
She ticks off a lesson she learned this year: have enough money stashed away for such emergencies. Judy Ann obviously does. And she plans to settle her financial obligations first before leaving for the US to take a crash course either in culinary arts or in makeup.
She also plans to tie up all the loose financial ends because "I don’t want my future husband to shoulder my debts someday."
And dig this, Judy Ann is willing to give up her oh-so-flourishing career if her husband will ask her to.
"If that’s what he wants to prove how much I love him, I can and I will," she says with a straight face.
As she and Ryan chorus in a cut from lovespeak, his new album for Vicor, theirs is no ordinary love. It’s inspiring in its unselfishness; liberating in its willingness to let the other grow.
But it’s still relatively young for talks of forever after. Good thing Judy Ann and Ryan realize this.
"I don’t want us to get married out of pressure from others. This will only lead to a breakup. And that’s the last thing I want," Judy Ann debunks talks about a Paul Cabral wedding gown and a marriage proposal.
Judy Ann Santos may be floating on Cloud Nine these days. But she also knows how to take off her rose-colored glasses and survey the terrain below for what it really is.