After 17 years, will Cloie see Dad Gabby?

Texted by Funfare that Cloie, his 17-year-old daughter with Jenny Syquia, has been here since Jan. 12, Gabby Concepcion replied, “I am happy that she is here.”

There was no word from either father or daughter when, or if ever, they will reunite after more than 17 years. Cloie was barely a year old when Mom Jenny brought her abroad, first to the US and finally to Sweden after Jenny, whose marriage to Gabby was declared null and void, married Swedish businessman Filip Skarne.

Asked if she had anything to say to the biological father she has seen perhaps only in pictures and in magazines, Cloie became emotional, very shy as if addressing a stranger (which, in a way, Gabby is to her), “Hi, Daddy Gabby. How are you?”

During this one-on-one with Funfare (and with Startalk which is airing the interview in this afternoon’s edition, on GMA after Eat, Bulaga!) last Thursday, Cloie was accompanied by Mom Jenny to the Viva offices in Ortigas Center where mother and daughter signed a three-year management contract.

“Cloie will have to concentrate first on modeling of which she has experience,” said Jenny who is still very pretty (she and Cloie look like sisters). “Later on, if she wants to try acting, it’s her call. We will see what happens.”

Jenny did a few movies (the first was Bridesmaids with Charlene Gonzalez and the last was Eseng ng Tondo with FPJ) before she left the country in the mid-‘90s after an ugly quarrel with Gabby that led to their break-up.

Jenny and Cloie with Jenny’s Swedish businessman-husband Filip Skarne and little daughter Filipa during a recent holiday in Boracay.

Although legally adopted by Filip and therefore now a Skarne, Cloie will use Concepcion as her professional surname.

“After all,” added Jenny, “Gabby is her biological father.”

Raised very well by Jenny and Filip, Cloie is a scholar at a university in Beijing, taking up a course in Communication Arts, that’s why she speaks fluent Mandarin (that is, besides, English, Swedish and Spanish which she studied in school). Jenny and Filip flew from Stockholm to Beijing where they fetched Cloie before they flew together to Manila. They spent a holiday in Boracay before Filip left ahead for Sweden.

Cloie has met with half-sister KC Concepcion, Gabby’s daughter with Sharon Cuneta. Sisters went to watch the Katy Perry together. Cloie said she would love to also see Gabrielle, her other half-sister who is Gabby’s daughter with Grace Ibuna. Born here (at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City), Cloie first visited the Philippines in 2005 without fanfare.

Asked what she and KC talked about, Cloie said, “About anything girls like us love to talk about  fashion, favorite things to do,” but not about boys or Gabby. “We love to talk with British accent and we find it fun.”

Would she, when she became of age, pose sexy for a magazine cover like what KC did for the current issue of Rogue (showing her in revealing white swimsuit, her back bare from waist up, with her right hand against the wall and her left holding a head…naughty observers said it looks like KC’s ex-boyfriend Piolo Pascual…with a snake coiled around it), Cloie joked, “If I looked that good, why not? She showed me the cover and it’s great. She’s very sexy.”

Volunteered Jenny, “Cloie is very proud of her Ate KC.”

Cloie has a five-year-old sister named Filipa whom the family calls Babes.

The Skarnes live in a small town with 5,000 people 10 minutes north of Stockholm, with one little main street, a grocery store, a restaurant, a pizzeria and a post office.

From left: Cloie and half-sisters KC Concepcion (on the cover of Rogue magazine) and Gabrielle Concepcion (Gabby’s upcoming singer-daughter with Grace Ibuna).

“I ride around in my bike,” related Jenny. “We live two houses from the water where we fish. It’s a laid-back kind of life, compared to life in Manila. I take my little daughter to school on my bike and back home.”

Very Gabby in looks like KC, Cloie said that she’s 50 percent her mom, 30 percent her stepfather and 20 percent her biological father.

“Cloie grew up with her dad Filip,” said Jenny, “the only father she has known all her life. It was Filip who taught Cloie how to swim and how to fish.”

Mother and daughter are living end of February, Jenny back to Sweden and Cloie to Beijing, and will be back in June to fulfill their Viva commitments.

I asked Cloie if she missed daddy Gabby whom she last saw when she was a year old, a meeting that she doesn’t remember.’

“Of course, I do,” she said, her eyes turning sad.

Wish that father and daughter will meet and close the years-old gap between them.

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