Amy moves on after rift at work, baby blues

AMY PEREZ: “I had post-partum depression. I felt so useless and just kept crying.”

“In this industry, it’s advisable to not burn your bridges,” TV host Amy Perez said. There was no bad blood between her and her former TV5 bosses, she stressed, but went as far as admitting that she had a “misunderstanding” with the production team of her erstwhile reality program, “Face the People,” on the Kapatid channel.

“Channel 5 and I are OK,” Perez clarified when she faced show biz reporters for the first time since her transfer to ABS-CBN in October. Perez is now cohosting the game show “Singing Bee” (Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.) with Roderick Paulate.

“It’s just sad. Because of that misunderstanding, the work atmosphere became too negative, almost toxic,” she told the Inquirer.

Perez said her relationship with the production team turned sour when she complained about her schedule. “I was just being honest with them. I said that after giving birth at age 43, I was no longer physically capable of taping four episodes in one day. I guess this wasn’t explained well enough to the staff members.”

Depression

Perez said she became “very emotional” after giving birth and that she suffered from post-partum depression. “It was physically difficult for me to go back to work after my Cesarean delivery. For the first two weeks, I felt so utterly useless. I kept crying because I couldn’t even get up to touch my son.”

Her contract with TV5 expired in May 2012 and was up for renegotiation, she related. “After the delivery, my partner of seven years, Carlo Castillo, and I agreed that my priority should be taking care of the children. Work at that point was giving me too much stress. In fact, I suffered mild alopecia (hair loss) for a while.”

The TV host said she had not talked with the “Face the People” team since she left TV5: “The pain is still there. I guess we’re all still healing. Even Sir Noel (Lorenzana, TV5 president), said it was probably good for me to take a break. Maybe after two years, I’ll get to work with TV5 again— they’re open to the prospect.”

Perez said it wasn’t easy to leave the show, which started as “Face to Face” in 2010, already with her. “But nothing is permanent in this business…Take ‘Singing Bee.’ After a while, I will graduate from this.”

Family time

She related that ABS-CBN contacted her despite her decision to move three years ago. “I grabbed the opportunity. We follow the schedule of Kuya Dick (Paulate’s nickname),” said Perez. Paulate is an incumbent Quezon City councilor.

“I’m thankful because my current schedule allows me to spend time with my children. I even have time to study culinary arts,” Perez said.

Her baby, Isaiah, recently turned 10 months old, the TV host said. Perez has two other sons— Adi, 16, and Kyle, 4. She said she and Carlo were hoping for a daughter next, should they decide to have another child.

“It’s just so depressing when I think how old I’ll be when my youngest turns 10…We’ll see kung kaya pa ng isa.”

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