SUNSHINE CRUZ speaks of her 13-year marriage with Cesar Montano.
“I was thinking na pag kinasal ka na, fairytale na, and we live happily ever after. Magkakaroon ka ng mga anak, and we’ll be happy. Ganoong-ganoon ang iniisip ko noon.”
“Sa sobrang saya ko ngayon, lahat ng kaaway ko, kahit yung mga may utang sa akin, patatawarin ko! Ngayong araw lang, ha!”
It was also, it turned out, the day Sunshine got word that the court had finally come out with its ruling on her petition to have her marriage to Cesar Montano annulled.
After a four-year legal battle with Cesar, the court had finally ended their tumultuous 13-year marriage.
Sunshine was now, officially, on her own again, except that now she had three daughters-Angelina Isabelle, 17; Samantha, 14; Cheska, 11-all by Cesar.
“Annulled na ako!” the Kapuso star exclaims as she descends the stairs from her bedroom to greet PEP.
Like a young girl telling a story, she trills, “Napasigaw talaga ako nung nalaman ko. Yung malakas na sigaw, dinig hanggang baba! Nagulat buong bahay!”
Sunshine was 23 years old when she married Cesar on September 14, 2000.
He was then, at 38, fifteen years her senior, but everyone in showbiz seemed to think everything was in its place for the bride and groom.
Theirs was a grand, high-profile wedding set against the sunset of Manila Bay, to which a veritable who’s-who of showbiz and select politicians had been invited as sponsors and guests.
Shine wore a princess-cut gown made of duchess satin, with intricate details of silk chording, beadwork, and cutwork at the hem, and a 20-foot-long train.
Buboy was quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer saying the Eric Pineda creation for his bride was a “very expensive gown.”
It reportedly cost in the vicinity of half-a-million pesos.
They were a couple in love.
A romance between two very attractive and well regarded showbiz stars, walking down the aisle and toward the altar, looking truly in love with other.
Indeed, they were.
“I know, I know that he really loved me, alam ko yun,” Sunshine says today.
“Hindi niya ako papakasalan kung hindi niya ako minahal–at mahal na mahal ko siya, talagang I fell for him.
“Talagang kinilig ako sa kanya lalo na nung pinapanood niya sa akin yung Jose Rizal.”
Jose Rizal was the big GMA Films’ release of 1998, directed by Marilou Diaz Abaya, starring Cesar as the country’s national hero.
Sunshine recalls, “Parang, shucks, di ba? Nililigawan ako ng isang ganun.
“He was really charming, napakasimpatiko talaga, e, and saka guwapo naman talaga. ‘Tapos, napakagaling na artista.
“And yun nga, naniwala lang ako nung sinabi niya na, ‘Sawa na ako sa kalokohan, sa pambababae.’”
Sunshine recounts that this was also the line that Cesar used with her dad, 747 band leader Danny Cruz, to win him over to his side.
“Yun din ang sinabi niya naman sa tatay ko before.
“Binisita niya ang papa ko that time sa Mandarin Hotel kasi dun nagpi-play ang papa, ‘no, yung band ng papa ko.
“And sinabi sa kanya talaga ni Papa na, ‘Cesar, kasi hindi talaga kita gusto. Kasi kung babaero ka, babaero din ako, e,’ sabi niya.
“And, ang sabi niya sa papa ko, ‘E, sir, pasensiya na ho kayo kung yung anak niyo ho yung magiging way para ho magbago ako.’
“So, di ba ganun, na may thinking naman talaga yung mga girls na, ‘Maybe ako na yung makakapagpabago sa kanya.’”
She sees now that it was that mindset (she was the girl to change him) and her view of her parents as “role models” (her parents stayed married until her father died in 2003) that made her stay with Cesar through 13 years of marital blues, a number of them turbulent.
“Naging peg ko talaga yung mom and dad ko,” Sunshine says. “
They married at an early age.
Mom ko, first boyfriend niya rin si Papa.
“Naging maasikaso siyang asawa at mom sa mga anak. So yun yung peg ko-na tinalikuran ko yung showbiz, and ang plano ko na lang talaga is alagaan yung family ko.
“Though it was hard for me kasi, siyempre, pampered ako ng mom ko, e…Kahit kama, hindi ko tinutupi. Kahit magluto ng egg, hindi ako marunong.
“So yun yung, parang, I was thinking na pag kinasal ka na, fairytale na, and we live happily ever after.
“Magkakaroon ka ng mga anak, and we’ll be happy. Ganoong-ganoon ang iniisip ko noon.”
It did not take long, Sunshine says, for her to discover that married life was not what she had imagined or hoped it would be.
“Masakit man aminin, pero honeymoon pa lang,” she says in tones tinged with hurt, “tinapon niya yung wedding ring namin sa ano, nung nag-Carribean cruise kami.”
As early as then, she says, Cesar began taking issue with “lahat nung movies ko.”
Sunshine had gone the sexy-actress route in her career, and on their honeymoon, she recalls bitterly, Cesar wanted her to admit to him that the sex scenes in her films had been for real.
That is, that she had had sex with her leading men-and not just with one, but with all of them.
She was frightened and shocked by all this, but she fought back.
“Sa honeymoon namin, sabi ko, ‘Kahit balatan mo ako, kahit itapon mo ako sa dagat, wala akong aaminin! Kasi, hindi totoo!’”
She rues the memory of it, “Sabi ko, that was a time na dapat masaya, honeymoon, nag-e-enjoy. Ano talaga, grabe.”
To this day, Sunshine says, she does not understand how Cesar, an actor himself, could get so fixated on the sexy movies she had starred in.
The actress became Cesar’s leading lady in Bullet, released in theaters in 1999, the same year she starred in Ekis: Walang Tatakas, Ibinigay Ko Ang Lahat, and Ang Kabit ni Mrs. Montero.
“Actually, we met when I was in Viva Films,” Sunshine narrates.
“Nung Viva Films, that was yung time na nag-iba ako ng image from Regal [Films].
“Nag-Viva ako, nag-sexy ako.”
When Cesar met her, she had just stepped into her twenties.
“So, it’s just unfair for me. Siya ang first boyfriend ko! So what is there to prove?”
She eventually discovered, she says, that the man she married did not just have a temper-he was a troubled man.
“Yun nga, tinapon niya yung wedding ring namin… Siguro, mas marami yung times na ganun siya, kesa yung kalmado siya.
“And I was thinking na, maybe, it was just yung pagpapalaki sa kanya, upbringing niya.
“Baka talaga medyo may temper lang. Yun yung iniisip ko-may temper lang.
“’Tapos, lagi sa ‘kin sinasabi ng ibang tao na, ‘Maybe you just have to prove your worth as a person.’ Ganun na lang lagi.
“That’s what I did. Napasubo na ako, kasal na ako-anong gagawin ko?”
Throughout their 13 years together, Sunshine tried to keep her marital woes from the public.
But this did not mean she did nothing; in 2007, she rebelled in a big way for the first time.
In December of that year, it was reported that Sunshine had left their Quezon City home on Christmas Day.
She had brought her daughters with her.
After a fiery argument with Cesar, whom she suspected of having an affair with Brazilian model Mariana del Rio, then 16 years old.
Cesar reportedly tried getting out of that issue by turning the tables on her.
To her face, he said she was nothing more than a “porn star.”
Devastated and shattered, Sunshine left the household.
She then sent this text message to worried friends: “All I want is a little respect.”
Following the walkout, Cesar went out of his way to refute talk that his wife had left the marriage, describing what happened as simply a “tampuhan ng mag-asawa.”
The report also had him accusing persons in his wife’s circle of feeding her with messages that “poisoned her mind.”
Sunshine confirms during the recent September 18 baring of the heart, that she did walk out on Cesar-and not just once, but many times.
“Sa totoo lang naman e aminado ‘ko na maraming beses ako nag-alsa balutan.
“Maraming beses tatakbo ako sa nanay ko, sa parents ko, kasama lahat ng gamit ko. May balikbayan boxes na nga akong available, e.”
What made Sunshine return to their home?
“Susunduin niya ako sa bahay, kakausapin niya yung parents ko.
“Yun nga, kasi, talagang,” Sunshine says, “hanggang kaya, hanggang kakayanin, kakayanin ko talaga.”
Were there no signs things could go wrong when they were still at the courtship stage?
That was, after all, two years?
“Marami, maraming signs,” Sunshine admits, “pero kasi, parang, ang feeling ko that time-para kaming Romeo and Juliet, you and me against the world-parang ganun.
“So, parang feeling ko, siya yung kakampi ko nun, siya lang yung nakakaintindi sa akin.”
Still, she says, at one point she actually called off the wedding.
“Merong sign e, before we got married,” she begins.
“Meron siyang nabitawan na salita sa akin, medyo ‘kinagulat ko. First time ko narinig.
“Kasi, with my family, hindi naman sa nagmamayabang, hindi ko kelanman narinig ang papa ko na nagsasalita ng anything about my mom, never kong nakitang namalo or nahila or ganyan…
“I was in Cebu, meron siyang nabitiwang salita sa akin sa phone.”
She made her move.
“I was calling off the wedding. I called Tita Norma Japitana [Cesar’s former manager], and I said, ‘The wedding is off! Ayoko na, ayoko na!’
“Kasi meron siyang nasabi sa akin-hindi maganda.”
Even today Sunshine will not repeat the words she says she heard from Cesar.
Shaking her head, she says, “Basta ang baboy, ang baboy. Hindi maganda, hindi talaga kaaya-aya.”
“I called off the wedding,” she continues.
“Yun yung time na pina-pack up niya yung taping niya, may shooting siya dapat.
“He flew to Cebu, and lumuhod at nagmakaawa sa akin.
“Nagulat ako. Pero, imagine, na-pack up niya yung shooting niya? I think he paid more or less PHP100K dun sa damage na ginawa niya-and he flew and apologized to me.”
But once they were married, Sunshine says, she found herself in a dark, chaotic home.
By her telling, “I would leave, then babalik ako, ganun. Parang, kasi, sinasabi niya bold star lang naman ako, wala nang kukuha sa ‘kin…
“Kung before po makikita niyo ako, di ba lagi lang akong nakatungo?
“Parang hiyang-hiya ako sa sarili ko, kasi sarili kong asawa ganun yung tingin sa ‘kin-what more yung ibang tao?
“Yun po iniisip ko.”
Sunshine adds that Cesar was also against her pursuing a college degree.
“Ang dami-dami kong pangarap nun, gusto kong, alam mo yun, siyempre, pag asawa mo siya, dapat all-out support siya, e. Tutal wala na ako sa showbiz.
“Yun nga, nag-culinary pa ako, e. I had to pay for my own tuition fee-walang support.
“I wanted to go back to school kasi high-school graduate lang ako nun, e. Kaya nga ngayon ko nagawa yung pangarap ko. Ayaw niya.”
Sunshine now holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology degree from Arellano University.
Sunshine says she stayed in the marriage because she was truly in love with the man she married.
“I really fell in love with him. It’s ano naman, e, talagang something na I will never deny.”
