What My Husband’s Lover meant to Kuh

MANILA, Philippines - Kuh Ledesma’s appearance in the famed gay-themed series My Husband’s Lover was apparently frowned upon by her Bible mates because it associated her to such a controversial subject matter. But that certainly didn’t stop the pop diva from being vocally proud of it. In fact, she personally attended the media gathering to promote the Fox Filipino rerun of the show, which originally aired over GMA 7 in 2013.

“For me, My Husband’s Lover mattered because it brought an awakening to women na kilatisin mabuti ang pakakasalan nila,” Kuh said recently while addressing the press at the Le Jardin Manila in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

My Husband’s Lover, starring Dennis Trillo, Carla Abellana and Tom Rodriguez, premiered on Fox Filipino last June 20. The series, which tackles the story of “a woman’s awakening to her husband’s hidden sexuality,” is shown via back-to-back episodes on weeknights 7 to 8:50 p.m. Viewers can catch replays on weekdays (7 to 9 a.m.) and marathons on Saturdays (9 a.m. to 5:55 p.m.).

For its depiction of gay lovers Vincent (Tom), a closet one married to devoted wife Lally (Carla), and his old love Eric (Dennis), My Husband’s Lover was talk-of-the-town primetime series that both tickled the fancies of the LGBT community and somehow shook the thinking of the ultra-conservatives, all in the name of good TV. It gave Dennis a key citation at the Asian Television Awards as the Emmy Awards saw it worthy of nomination for its Telenovela category.

Kuh, playing Vincent’s sharply classy mother and whose song One More Try was used as main theme in the series to good reception, expressed her salutation for My Husband’s Lover, saying, “People will continue to talk about the series. It’s so much more prevalent now, yung mga closet husbands. There are women who are not knowledgeable about it and there has to be enough education on this matter.”

Her advice to women: “Dapat di ka nagmamadali (Don’t rush). Don’t be intimate with someone you just met. That’s where prayers come in because we make mistakes when we don’t follow God’s design.”

By observation, the public’s positive reaction for My Husband’s Lover was grounded on Lally being the perceived victim of the love triangle and therefore the recipient of the viewers’ sympathy. Bring in Eric and Vincent’s seamless expression of their burning affection for each other and you got a series that shows biting reality and makes so much sense in modern, liberated family set-ups.

Fox Networks Group Philippines director Charo Espedido noted, “My Husband’s Lover is a quality Filipino production that challenges to question outdated norms. Fox Filipino is giving those who missed out on the series an opportunity to fall in love again with its characters.”

Asked if she would join a sequel if there’ll ever be, Kuh quickly said, “Why not? Basta maganda ang ending.”