Eula: I don't depend on others to make me happy

MANILA, Philippines - Nothing beats experience, especially when it comes to love. Ask Eula Valdez, a battle-scarred survivor of a failed relationship (with Ronnie Quizon) and now the happy wife of Richard Litonjua, who is based in Australia.

The Eula today is light years away from the starry-eyed girl on the throes of first love. Now, she knows more than anyone else that sometimes, even the deepest love doesn’t last forever. True to Murphy’s law, something, somehow will go wrong. And when it does, you just don’t sit there and cry your eyes out. You lick your wounds, take stock of the situation, and move on without turning back.

That’s what Eula has in mind should her state of marital bliss — knock on wood — go the way of her first union.

“I’ll just look at it as a necessary detour in my life,” she says. “It’s something I must experience to get to where I should be. I don’t rely on other people to make me happy. I’m no longer the idealistic girl I used to be.”

Luckily, the star of GMA 7’s All About Eve (Mondays to Fridays after Totoy Bato) has yet to regret a single day of her six-year-old marriage.

“Exposure to another culture has made my husband more broad-minded,” says Eula. Unlike other Pinoys who balk at the sight of their wife or girlfriend in sexy attire, Richard is even proud his better half landed on the cover of FHM two years ago.

“My husband feels proud. He even wrote about it on the Internet,” Eula states.

Even her 14-year-old son Miguel doesn’t see anything wrong with it.

The young man’s reaction to those teasing him about Eula’s FHM stint is knee-jerk: “Let’s see if your mother can do what my mom has done!”

This absence of objections from her family makes Eula open to similar invitations from other men’s magazines (paging Maxim!).

Meanwhile, she’s open to other teleseries, even from ABS-CBN, now that her primetime drama All About Eve is about to wrap up on June 5.

“I still don’t have a follow-up project after All About Eve,” she reveals. But she’s not having sleepless nights because of this. Eula was in the same boat after La Lola ( which preceded All About Eve) , aired its last episode. And look, she found herself with another offer, this time to play the fiery Alma, Richard Gomez’s wife on All About Eve.

Eula will most likely busy herself organizing projects for Bagets Foundation. The four-year-old foundation sends poor but deserving students to school.

Eula reports that one of their 90 scholars finished magna cum laude recently.

Bagets, of course, comes from the title of the hit movie Eula, Aga Muhlach, Herbert Bautista, Raymond Lauchengco, William Martinez, Yayo Aguila, Albert Martinez, Jobelle Salvador, JC Bonnin and others made many years back.

Eula was surprisingly several pounds heavier then.

Herbert, remembering those good old days, once urged Eula, “Taba, ikaw naman sa Foundation!”

Read: Herbert decided to turn over the reins as president of the foundation to Eula. This way, he can focus more on his job as Quezon City vice mayor.

Eula didn’t see it coming. But slowly, she must get used to the new role Herbert handed to her. If Herbert thinks she can do it, boy, she can!

As Eula herself will tell you, one has to go through certain things to grow. This one might just be one of those things that will help her discover another side of her she never knew existed. And who knows, in taking the road less traveled, Eula will come up with more things, more adventures to share with us all.