Sharon Cuneta: ‘I was going through a midlife crisis’

MANILA, Philippines - Megastar Sharon Cuneta has said that she went through a “midlife crisis.”

Sharon reached out to her fans on Monday through her Facebook page with an open letter, where she addressed certain issues and realizations in her life.

She opened the letter by saying that she “gave up on myself” as she goes through a “midlife crisis.”

“My reaction to it was awful; I became rebellious because I hated myself for the way I looked and the time I continued to waste by not focusing and working on bettering my own person,” she stated.

Sharon adds: “I feel that I have let you [fans] down. I let myself go, I allowed myself to get fat and stay fat. I became complacent... and I never lost faith in God, and in you, but I ignored the fact that I had lost faith in myself. It was I who let myself become affected by the fact that I had turned forty, not my public.”

“I feel that I had lost that "hunger" to be on top of my industry, maybe because I finally had a peaceful home and a loving family and focused on my children so much,” she further adds. “And so I suffered the consequences of failing to treasure and take care of all that God had blessed me with with regard to my career. It IS my fault, my friends. I am only human.”

She said this reaction has led her to committing “mistakes that have affected all that I have worked for, bled for over the past thirty-six years.”

'I’m baring my heart.'

Meanwhile, Sharon said she is expecting her bashers to again use the open letter to mock her.

“I am baring my heart, even with the understanding that others who take pleasure in someone else's pain might just use this post again, against me. At this point, it is not my problem if they cannot distinguish between words spoken from the heart and those spoken for someone's 'image,'” she said addressing her bashers.

The actress-host-singer admits that she may not be able to control her “temper,” especially whenever bashers direct their insults to her family, especially her children.

Sharon says her reaction to them may not be “Christian-like,” but explained that she’s being “provoked” and that she’s just “a human being who will do anything short of murder someone who is full of malice and such disrespect that I, and any member of my family, and truly any of YOU -- do not deserve.”

Although she apologized for the “upsetting words that I used when I could have ignored so much negativity,” and adds that “I simply WAS AND STILL AM NOT USED to being treated in a mean way, being insulted to the depths of my soul when I have done nothing to deserve it except to defend myself and a loved one.”

She further adds: “I cannot apologize for the person I am. I am transparent. I cry when I'm sad, I laugh uncontrollably when I'm happy, I am frank and say what I think when any part of my person or property is violated. I was very matiisin for many, many years, and lots of people took advantage of that. So very many.

“So I learned to stand up for myself. Twitter was one of the few places that provoked me to show that side of me, but make no mistake about it -- I am a fighter. I am not a doormat. And like every other human being, I deserve respect, especially because I know I am not a bad person.

“My mistake was I should've picked my battles like I always used to. I was shocked and unprepared, and so I was wrong to react the way I often did.”

Sharon also thanked her fans who have been with her through the ups and downs of her life and career.

She said, “It has taken me a while to take stock of my life and what has happened to me in the last few years. I will not make any promises to you this time. But this I can say: I am going back to basics. More on what I mean in the coming weeks.”

Sharon also parted with her fans the “mission” which is “to inspire and encourage, to show that in this crazy world, there are still a few of us you can count on to be real. To show that you fall every once in a while, but you get up. You must. It is our obligation to do so. I know it is my obligation to do so. Not just for me, but for all of you.”

“I don't say this lightly, but I love you. For loving me even if you don't know me as a normal human being and not the girl on tv and in movie reruns. I love you for knowing that I am not perfect, and loving me anyway. I love you because you give me a reason to go on doing what I love to do -- singing, acting, hosting... I love you because you make me feel needed and still worth something in this fickle world," she said, ending the letter.

Here is Sharon Cuneta’s Facebook post: