Heaven Peralejo on struggle to lose weight, leaving show biz

Actress Heaven Peralejo admitted that her mom’s recent health scare made her realize how short life is and how much one’s time spent with loved ones should be valued.

“She is doing good now,” Heaven said of her mom, Shirley Luanne, who successfully battled uterine cancer seven years ago. In 2022, Heaven said in an interview that a tumor had been spotted on her mom’s chest.

“She’s in a good state now,” the 24-year-old actress insisted. “We’re supporting each other. She’s also my manager. When she got sick, that’s when I realized how short life truly is, how we shouldn’t be too caught up with all the drama of it. Whatever conflict we have with other people, we should resolve them right away. It was when I realized that my mama is a fighter and that I should be one, too.”

Heaven then recalled two specific points in her career when she thought of giving up. “Of course, when I left the PBB (‘Pinoy Big Brother’) house, so many things were happening all at the same time. I wasn’t sure if I’d still continue doing show biz. I was only 16 at the time. But my mama said, ‘You’re gonna fight. You’re meant for this.’” Heaven told reporters during her launch recently as Ginebra San Miguel’s 2024 Calendar Girl.

“I’m glad I listened to her. I really love my job, so whatever hurtful words other people throw my way in order to force me to quit, I will keep on fighting,” she said. “The second one was before I agreed to do ‘Nanahimik ang Gabi.’ Before that movie offer, I was thinking what my next job would be. I thought, ‘Maybe audiences don’t like to watch me anymore;’ and then I was given that project. It was then that I realized, ‘No. I’m not going to quit. I will fight for this job.’ Look at me now.”

Heaven eventually became part of ABS-CBN’s suspense-drama “Linlang” and TV5’s romantic series “The Rain in España.” She is currently working on a crime story titled “Out of Service,” opposite Alden Richards, who is also directing and coproducing the movie with Viva Entertainment.

Empowering Filipino women

However, Heaven clarified that posing as a calendar girl does not imply that she would be taking on more daring roles in the future. “I’d do it only if showing more skin than usual is really needed in the story. Becoming a calendar girl is not just about being sexy, but also about representing Filipino women,” she pointed out. “I don’t even think my calendar poses are too sexy. I think it’s just about empowering women. That’s what I liked about the brand. The people behind the campaign took good care of me, and also took on the matters that I feel strongly about.”

Heaven confessed that she initially felt pressured while preparing for the shoot. “I was given two months to get ready—I was thankful for that. But, for a time, I became too hard on myself because I wasn’t seeing results. I would do physical activities every day—muay thai, running, tennis and gym workouts. As for my diet, I did Omad. It means one meal a day. That’s when I realized what my body needed—Omad didn’t work for me. I saw that my body required proper nourishment,” she began.

“It was at this point when (people from Ginebra) talked to me. They said, ‘We’re not pressuring you to lose weight. We love you for who you are, so please don’t feel too stressed. We want to show people that more than your body size, you feel confident, you feel sexy. That’s what matters,’” Heaven recalled.

Asked to define “sexy,” Heaven said: “It’s about how you present yourself and feel about yourself. Sexiness is showing that you’re confident with the body that you have, as you take in the right kinds of food. For me, there are many forms of being sexy, but that’s for another discussion.” INQ