MANILA, Philippines — ABS-CBN stars Maymay Entrata and Edward Barber have dashed fans’ hopes of them being a romantic item.
The love team known as “MayWard” made a statement Sunday to explain to fans why they preferred to stay friends instead of pursuing something more despite being a love team for three years. They also assured fans that they will still work together following this decision.
The actors said in a letter posted on their Instagram accounts: “Masaya at masarap po sa pakiramdam ang idea ng isang romantic relationship, but as we go along our journey, we realize na hindi basta-basta lang to get into a relationship.”
(Although the idea of a romantic relationship is happy and feel-good, we realized as we went along our journey that getting into a relationship is not something to be taken lightly.)
“Sana po ay maintindihan [n’yo] po kami (I hope you understand us),” they appealed.
“Pareho po namin na-realize na sa estado ng buhay namin ngayon (We both realized that in the state of our lives now), we both are still very young, and there is so much more we still want to achieve in our lives,” they explained.
“We both agree there is no need to rush into anything. This means not having a romantic relationship between us at this point.”
Entrata and Barber emphasized that they still wanted to be friends and work together.
“Pareho po namin na-realize (We both realized) that being the best of friends will even be more beneficial for us,” they said, citing that they would be more comfortable working together this way.
“Kami pa din ang magkasama dahil (We will still be together because) there’s no one else we would rather work with, than each other.”
Both Entrata and Barber were contestants in the reality show “Pinoy Big Brother: Lucky 7” in 2016. Their first film together was in the 2017 rom-com “Loving in Tandem.”
Barber said in an October 2018 interview on “Tonight with Boy Abunda” that the actress was his first love, though both never confirmed the status of their relationship. They celebrated three years as a love team last August.