Chanda Romero opens up about relationship with openly gay late actor Bernardo Bernardo

Chanda Romero | Image: YouTube/Fast Talk

Chanda Romero looked back on her relationship with the openly gay late actor Bernardo Bernardo, noting that sexual preferences didn’t matter because they loved each other.

Sitting down on “Fast Talk with Boy Abunda” on Thursday, Jan. 25, the award-winning actress said that the love relationship she had with Bernardo was different from the relationships she had with other straight men.

“That was different because I think looking back, that was very special, because ‘yun ang talagang I loved him as he was,” she said. 

“It didn’t matter to me what his sexual preference was, but I loved him because it was him. I just loved the whole of him,” added the actress. 

Romero shared the set-up of their relationship, recalling that she was supportive when Bernardo had a new object of affection.

“Minsan nga kapag sinasabi niya na, ‘Meron akong bagong crush diyan,’ ‘Hindi! Samahan kita, tingnan ko muna. Kailangan i-approve ko muna,” she narrated. 

(Sometimes when he would tell me, “I have a new crush there,” I was like, “No. I will join you; I need to see them first to see if I would approve of them.)

The 69-year-old actress said their love encompasses the gray areas of sexuality, noting that they were just focused on their happiness to be in the relationship.

“When Bernardo loved me when we were together, it was one of the few times that I knew it was really love between the both of us. And it was taboo. We were just so unafraid and so proud of having found each other. We were both happy,” she declared. 

In 2013, Romero married Jose Mari “Mayi” Alejandrino and has been with him since. The actress currently stars in GMA’s “Black Rider.”

While Bernardo died on March 8, 2018, due to a tumor in his pancreas.