How Steven won Julia’s heart

No, they didn’t elope.

No, they didn’t hide (from the media).

And no, they didn’t turn their whirlwind romance into a publicity stunt (as some people surmised).

"We fell in love, we got married and now I’m pregnant," is how Julia Clarete, now legally Mrs. Steven Uy, sums up the whole thing.

They got married (in civil rites) on Sept. 24 and found out that she was pregnant on Sept. 26. It was a difficult pregnancy ("My uterus was retroverted at mababa daw ang matris ko, according to my OB-Gyne who warned me of a threatened abortion," says Julia), so she had to stay in bed for two weeks.

Because she disappeared from Eat, Bulaga! (where she’s back as one of the co-hosts), Julia unwittingly generated all sorts of wild guesses, such as 1) she cooked up the marriage to cover up for something, 2) her marriage was fake, and 3) she desperately wanted attention (you know, KSP as in Kulang Sa Pansin).

The "foreigner businessman" initially reported to have swept Julia off her feet turned out to be Steven Uy who’s somebody I know. A pure Chinese, Steven has been producing stage musicals for many years now (and two years ago with the Metropolitan Theater Guild he put up with friends). His last production was Romeo & Juliet (with Laurice Guillen and Johnny Delgado’s daughter Yna as Juliet).

Although they recall having been crossing paths "for almost 10 years," Julia says that they came to know each other only on the set of the indie film Hilaw (on hold, with a few shooting days more to go) where she’s the leading lady and he the production designer.

"We engaged in heavy flirting on the set," Julia jokes. "After we warmed up to each other, we never stopped talking."

Very obviously, they didn’t just talk.

"I have had so many suitors but Steven is different," adds Julia. "He’s something else. My problem with my other suitors was that they didn’t know how to listen. Steven is the quiet type who knows how to listen. I’m his opposite; I’m talkative. Besides, Steven did something my other suitors didn’t. He visited me at home and won over not just me but also my Nanay. I didn’t have to tell him to do it; he just did. I didn’t know that while listening, he was also trying to figure me out. I’m such a hard person to figure out but I was amazed that his reading of my character was very accurate. So I said, ‘This guy is not stupid!’ He understands me and I’ve been a spoiled brat since then."

But even now that they’re expecting a baby, Julia hasn’t gotten used to calling Steven "my husband (asawa ko)." Everything happened too fast that, up to now, even if they’re living together in Steven’s pad, they have to pinch themselves to be convinced that it isn’t all a dream.

If a boy, their baby would have been named Santino until they realized that Martin Nievera and Katrina Ojeda have beaten them to it. "Now we’re looking for another name," says Julia. If a girl, the baby will be named Sollena.

Isn’t Julia worried that her whirlwind marriage might ruin her career, specifically her Hollywood Dream (she and Raymond Bagatsing won the ABC 5 reality-TV search for two local actors to be launched in Hollywood)?

"It would, definitely," admits Julia. But who cares? She and Steven are in love.

Asked whatever happened to her Hollywood Dream prizes, including a promised membership with the SAG (Screen Actors Guild), Julia breaks into a what-do-you-think? kind of smile. "It has remained that – a dream, an unfulfilled promise. Even the SAG membership went pffft because one of the requirements is for you to have a project in Hollywood. I have none so far."

Won’t that dream turn into, heaven forbid, a nightmare?

Knocking on wood, Julia exclaims, "I hope not!"

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