Heart Evangelista and husband Chiz Escudero. Image: Instagram/@iamhearte
A month after shutting down split rumors, Heart Evangelista spoke about her marriage with Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who she credited for “passing through fire” with her, including being pressured into having a baby.
The actress and fashion personality opened up about this in an exclusive interview with Mega magazine, but Evangelista opted not to expound on the “fire” she was pertaining to. An excerpt of Evangelista’s feature story was released by the publication on Wednesday, Feb. 1.
“I went through a stage where I went under fire. I had to pass through fire and not a lot of people could pass through that fire with me,” she told the publication. “That’s why I’m very appreciative of my husband, my friends, because they were really there for me when we needed to go through a certain time in my life. It was painful, but it was good.”
Evangelista then spoke about her encounter with “people that feel like you can’t make it without them,” and how Escudero supported her amid his fear of Evangelista “getting hurt by the world.”
“I don’t want to be a hostage of anything and anyone. And I’m just very appreciative of my husband for seeing that,” she was quoted as saying. “I think, in a way, maybe he was afraid for me, that I would be hurt by the world, or the letdowns, or people doing things to me, because he knew that I had such a gentle heart, and he thought I wouldn’t survive a heartbreak. But I can survive anything.”
During the interview, Evangelista also stressed how she made changes in her life “to get rid” of the pressure brought about by certain societal standards.
While the actress and fashion icon has successfully fended off criticisms about not having their own child, the matter appeared to be like a Damocles sword hanging over their head, even though Escudero already has two children from his first marriage.
“I think it was a lot about being pressured to have a baby. It was not necessarily from certain people,” she stated. “It was really like a shift in my life: the pressures of being a wife, the pressures of being a certain mold, and I just wanted to get rid of that. And I did, by doing what I felt like doing. And if people don’t get it, then they don’t get it.”
Senator Chiz Escudero and Heart Evangelista share a light moment during their wedding ceremony. Screengrab from Bob Nicolas’ video of the wedding.
Evangelista and Escudero were married in the exclusive Balesin resort on February 15, 2015 — a day after her 30th birthday — three years after they were introduced to each other by the late Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, and eventually exclusively dating.
Years later, the couple would be hounded by breakup rumors in 2022 after netizens noticed that she had removed her husband’s surname from her Instagram profile. She then admitted last September that she was dealing with “personal struggles,” then revealed a month later that she was planning to stay abroad “indefinitely” for her work commitments.
Evangelista quashed the speculations in December when she told Escudero that she would “see [him] soon” after her stay in Paris. The couple were then seen together in several instances including their New Year’s Eve celebration, their Japan trip with Escudero’s kids, as well as Evangelista’s recent Paris trip for the fashion week. EDV