Hands-on mom Solenn on show biz hiatus till year-end

Solenn Heussaff with her baby girl Thylane

As far as show biz work is concerned, 2020 is over for Solenn Heussaff. “[Year] 2020 is done for me, show biz-wise,” she declared.

With a considerable number of COVID-19 cases still being recorded daily, health and safety remain her priority, especially now that she’s raising her first child. But even if the situation does eventually return to normal, she doesn’t see herself taking on the same kind of workload she used to juggle.

“The pandemic has made me rethink my job. I’m happy with show biz, but I don’t want to be working six to seven days a week as I did before. When life goes back to normal, maybe I can allot three days a week for work,” she told the Inquirer in a recent video interview arranged by the insurance company Philam Life, which she and her husband, Nico Bolzico, represent as celebrity ambassadors.

For now, it’s all about her 9-month-old baby girl, Thylane. “I want to be present in the early years of her life, the first seven years at least. I want to focus more on being a mother,” the 35-year-old GMA 7 actress said.

While long-term projects like drama series are out of the question this year, she has done quick, one-off shoots here and there. “We made sure everyone was tested … You do have to start getting out a bit, because it’s easy to get used to this (staying at home). It’s still scary, but you have to put a foot back in,” she said.

Looking back, Solenn is grateful that she was able to give birth last Jan. 1, two months before the pandemic blew up and prompted strict quarantine measures across the country. She had a delicate pregnancy, and she couldn’t imagine doing the things she did then now that there’s a health crisis.

“That difficult pregnancy required me to go to the hospital every week or every two weeks for five months. Thank God I didn’t give birth in the middle of the pandemic. If I were pregnant now, I would have been at risk all the time,” she said. “It’s scary.”

Being a first-time parent is daunting enough. What more in this kind of situation?

“When they announced the lockdown last March, there were many things going through my head, because we have never had anything like this. You start wondering, ‘What kind of world am I bringing my child into?’” she related. “Is this going to last for a week? Two weeks? And now we have been in this for so long.”

“I’m afraid of anything that has to do with Thylane. I have started feeding her food. But what if she gets allergies? I’m afraid of doing something wrong,” she said.

Fortunately, Nico is able to work from home and give all the support Solenn needs. “It’s just Nico and I taking care of the baby. He looks after her in the morning, so I can sleep in. And his office is upstairs, so he can always visit us. We then take a walk with her, bathe her, put her in the inflatable pool,” she related. “Her room is my sanctuary.”

“I didn’t expect I would be as hands-on as I am now, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Solenn added.

Once in a while, if possible, Solenn visits her mom, so Thylane can get used to seeing other faces.

Like Solenn, Nico is making the most of his time with Thylane—something he probably wouldn’t get to enjoy if he had to go to the office. “Since I’m staying at home now, I get to see my baby every hour, even if it’s my work hours,” he said.

“We don’t know everything. We don’t know if we will be able to protect our children 100 percent of the time. So, it’s good to have that support, knowing where or who to go to when needed,” said Nico, explaining the need to have “a variable” life insurance plan for children. “I hope that never happens, but … it’s a tool that can help parents raise their children with less worries.”