Ai Ai delas Alas and the Break-Up PlayList

This will not be a repetition of Comedy Queen Ai Ai delas Alas’ interview with the ‘King of Talk’ Boy Abunda that happened recently in his program, Fast Talk With Boy Abunda. Although, there will be some snippets of it.

Why did her decade-old marriage with husband Gerald Sibayan go kaput? She had enumerated the reasons during an interview conducted by her personal manager. The scarred but beautiful woman donned an off- shoulder, long-sleeved white dress, accented by diamond earrings, a white gold necklace, with hair and its extensions, neatly placed together, for a truly regal look.

During the course of the question and answer with her Ama, her term of endearment for Abunda, Ai Ai was poised, carefully choosing the words she uttered, in control of her emotions, breaking down only once when a sensitive matter became the topic of conversation.

In fact, what Ai Ai displayed to us who managed to watch the birthday and big reveal episode, it was the greatest performance of her life. Gut-wrenching and heart-tugging to watch, knowing the fact that all she did was to love and follow the dictates of her heart.

Personally speaking, I’ve had a few encounters with the Sibayan ex-couple. When I became one of the writers for a book to honor the legacy of director Wenn Deramas, I interviewed Ai Ai over brunch at her house, with Gerald joining us. My first impression of him? He is obviously an educated man, presenting himself as shy, smiling meekly. He never joined in the conversation, and offered his two cents worth of blabber. He just sat, listened and enjoyed the hearty brunch. Of course, Ai Ai was at her comic and sincere best, as she recollected the friendship she had with Direk Wenn.

Another time was in the dressing room of his wife in a shoot. That time, since my face and persona was already familiar to him, he was more congenial, smiled sincerely, and made small talk. The next was in a coffee place, after Ai Ai’s grand Kapuso welcome. He beamed with so much pride for his then partner, and was most welcoming and amiable to the press he already knew. And in a private audience with the comedy queen, with him present again, Sibayan told me that he loved reading my stories about his beloved.

The Delas Alas and Sibayan union defied societal conventions, with the two believing in the glory and the power of their love. What transpired between them, in their private spaces, is a reality that only two of them share and know.

Thus, I cannot help but wonder, what becomes of the broken hearted, especially if it’s someone like Ai Ai delas Alas?

Playlist

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do Neil Sedaka’s classic anthem played in my mind as the Abunda-Delas Alas interview ensued, followed immediately by Peter and Gordon’s A World Without Love, especially the lines, “I don’t care what they say I won’t stay in a world without love.” This likely sums up the relationship gamble of Ai Ai when she said: “Alam kong bata pa si Gerald and pwedeng magbago ang isip. Pero alam mo ‘yun, sana huwag. Sana totoong may forever. Sana binigyan ako ni Lord ng pagkakataong magkaroon ng pag-aasawa nang matagal.”

Natalie Cole’s Someone That I Used To Love specifically the part “I did my best to keep you satisfied, I guess you’ll never how much I tried, I really tried” encapsulated the invitro-fertilization process they underwent. How painful it was for Gerald, and triple the pain for her, with the many adjustments, and how she became her most domestic. The many open discussions she did not categorize as fights and the bomb she discovered about Sibayan.

Depeche Mode’s Somebody embodied Ai Ai’s trust issues, and the lyrics that best described it are: “But when I’m asleep I want somebody who will put their arms around me and kiss me tenderly, though things like this take me sick, in a case like this I’ll get away with it.” Her explanation fit the lyrics perfectly: “It doesn’t matter kung meron o wala. Kasi nung sinabi niya na firm na siya sa decision, wala na naman akong ilalaban, di ba? Kapag lumaban pa kasi ako, kunyari nag-stay ako, alam ko naman ang magiging ending. Yung dignity at self-worth ko, mawawala na yon. Nagtira naman ako kasi alam ko na mangyayari uli yon. Kasi nung 2019, nag-cheat na rin siya noon. So, parang may trust issues na ako. At siguro, isa yon sa minsan hindi ko alam na pagtalak ko sa kanya. O minsan, yung hindi naman mahigpit, pero yung tanong na, ‘Nasaan ka na? Sabi mo, 12 midnight nandito ka na.”

Concluding this playlist, The Carpenters’ Goodbye To Love, with lyrics that read: “What lies in the future is a mystery to us all. No one can predict the wheel of fortune as it falls. There may come a time when I will see that I’ve been wrong. But for now this is my song, and it’s goodbye to love, I’ll say goodbye to love.” This relates to how the comedy queen ends the interview by saying “Ayoko nang maging makalat… Let’s move forward and positive lang na may magandang mabibigay sa’tin ang Lord.”

Between now and the nearest future, a divorce proceeding is not impossible to happen. Since Sibayan is in the US, an official statement from him is most likely, but it is best that silence becomes his defense. Let his legal counsel do the talking. Why he chose 14 October as the date when he sent the message and what relevance it has to his personal life, only time can tell.

For Ai Ai delas Alas, her choices to be not ‘makalat’ about this, accepting it with dignity and grace, is most commendable. And yes Ms. Eileen, as the South Border hit Rainbow says, “There’s a rainbow always after the rain.”