(From left) Maine Mendoza, Arjo Atayde. Image: Instagram/@mainedcm
While Maine Mendoza was still being paired with Kapuso heartthrob Alden Richards, regulars of the then Eat Bulaga’s Kalyeserye were rooting for their “budding romance” to stand the test of time. As Lola Nidora would say to “Yaya Dub,” Mendoza’s moniker, their “love” would reveal itself sa “tamang panahon” (at the right time).
Fast forward to the present, Mendoza is now set to marry actor and Quezon City Rep. Arjo Atayde after several years together despite the staunch fanaticism of the Alden-Yaya Dub, or “Aldub” love team.
Talk about right timing, it turned out that Atayde and Mendoza have long had a crush on each other, and that was even before they even crossed paths for the first time during the story conference for their 2018 film “Jack Em Popoy: The Puliscredibles.”
“Ang feeling ko, it was more of a sincere thing. I’ve always had a crush on her, and I’ve always had a thing for her, but there were no chances of meeting her,” Atayde said during an exclusive interview with entertainment magazine, Mega, which was published on Thursday, June 1.
Mendoza, for her part, admitted that their feelings were mutual, although she clarified that it wasn’t love at first sight.
“Same thing! I’ve always had a crush on him. We just matched: our personalities are opposites, but somehow our differences make up for what we each lack,” she told the magazine.
She claimed that it wasn’t only after a “series of conversations and getting to know this and stuff like that” that she fell in love with her now fiancé.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I saw him, and I love him.’ Walang gano’n. I wouldn’t consider it as love at first sight. Does it really happen in real life?” she continued.
As they started dating, the “Cattleya Killer’ star said that their initial shyness towards each other wavered as a “feeling of contentment” became the key to their relationship.
“At first, puro hiya-hiya, but it grew so quick when we got to know each other. But the moment we went out, there was a feeling of contentment that we can’t explain, and it just went smoothly for us. We just blend well together,” he said.
The celebrity couple met on July 28, 2018. According to Atayde during the couple’s engagement video, this was the same date that Mendoza posted the now-famous “Arjo cutie” line on Twitter five years back.
The couple announced their engagement in July 2022, although they have yet to share the details of their wedding, as of this writing. EDV