Just when we were ready to dismiss as “silly folks” those showbiz lovers who don’t want to own up to their relationships despite netizen-posted snaps of their clingy dates somewhere or another on his planet.

We are treated to an Instagram posting of Jericho Rosales admitting his romance with Janine Gutierrez, which has been going on just for a few months now. Gutierrez did not deny. Since Rosales implied her, through an emoji, to be the sunflower of his life, Gutierrez replied that because of Rosales, “nakakakita na ako ng liwanag (I am able to see the light).”

Rosales was greeting Gutierrez on Instagram on her birthday, 2 October.

Well, he is 44 and she turned 35. Age seems to have mellowed them into a compulsion for openness. Both also had years of guarding their privacy most-likely to keep their peace, mental health and wellbeing. 

Rosales is separated from his wife, the ramp model-content creator Kim Jones, for five years now, though it was only a few months ago that they let the separation be known through a social media posting of their common friend – who knew all about it from Day One.

That trusted friend is the fashion designer-entrepreneur Ricco Ocampo, who was their wedding godfather in Boracay in 2014. Rosales was already in his mid-30s then. Their romance began in 2011. Jones is a British-Filipina who grew up in Australia and came over to the Philippines to spice up her career.

Before Jones, Rosales had years of being together with Heart Evangelista. Rosales was at the peak of his showbiz career and had earned enough to buy himself a house-and-lot in a gated subdivision in Quezon City. The house was reportedly mainly interior-designed by Evangelista who comes from a well-off family and was accustomed to fine living.

It is said that they had to part ways because Evangelista’s family did not approve of Rosales’ background of being from the fish-vending folks in a wet market in Marikina.

(He was a TV contest joiner in his youth and part of his appeal is his story of helping his mother sell fish in a wet market. A stunningly goodlooking fish vendor, tall and well-built!)

Prior to Evangelista, Rosales had a romance with fellow ABS-CBN star Christine Hermosa that was well-covered by media. Rosales once looked back to it with showbiz media and why it had to end: “I had too much career pressure and it weighed down on our relationship with almost weekly quarrels. We just had to let go of each other.”

Hermosa went with another ABS-CBN actor, Diether Ocampo, and had a whirlwind civil wedding with him officiated by a town mayor, which they decided to be annulled after a few days. Hermosa eventually married Oyo Boy Sotto, son of actor-producer Vic Sotto (of Eat Bulaga fame, of course) and they are now into their sixth child between them.

By 2020, Rosales and Jones began to be persistently rumored to have separated even if they still managed to go to New York together to further their respective careers there. Rosales seems to have a secret desire to have a Hollywood career.

They came back to the Philippines and became less and less seen together. They practically stopped posting photos together on social media. They tried their best to appear they’re still happily married by attending the 2023 ABS-CBN Ball together. Every now and then, however, Rosales had to charmingly parry off ubiquitous queries from some journos about the unceasing buzz about not being with Jones anymore.

There are suspicions that it must be Rosales that prompted Ocampo to reveal the quiet separation between him and Jones because word spread that Rosales has begun to hound and court Kathryn Bernardo who had broken off from actor boyfriend Daniel Padilla after 11 years.

And then Rosales discovered the ever cheery and sunny Janine Gutierrez whom he initially tried to avoid dating because Rosales’ make-up artist told him she was only 24 years old -- and Gutierrez really looks 24 at 35! Rosales felt he would never be a cradle-snatcher at 45.

They portray husband and wife on ABS-CBN’s Lavender Field but shortly before they went into taping, Rosales invited Gutierrez for coffee so they could study their characters together. The session lasted three hours, Rosales learned she is not 24, but a lovable, bubbly almost 35. 

He drove her home to the house of her grandmother who happens to be the Pilita Corrales. Gutierrez’s father is Ramon Christopher Gutierrez (whose father is actor Eddie Gutierrez). Janine’s mother is Lotlot de Leon, adopted daughter of Nora Aunor and Christopher de Leon.

Janine is believed to have been Paulo Avelino’s girlfriend for some years before he got linked to Kim Chiu. There were years Janine and Avelino had never avoided being seen together—though they never admitted on Instagram or in any social media that they were attached. 

They seem to have stopped seeing each other while Janine was working on the ABS-CBN series Dirty Linen and Avelino was physically training for his role in the Viu series Linlang in which he first portrayed amateur boxer then seaman, and then cuckolded husband of a wife portrayed by Kim. 

Well, let’s all hope that Gutierrez’s and Rosales’ openness and warmth lead to a fabulous romance of a lifetime — even as Rosales and Jones stay on as caring friends to each other.