Nathalie a mom by December

Unlike most expecting actresses, Nathalie Hart didn’t try to keep her being four months pregnant a secret. Over a media lunch at the Frazzled restaurant (on Scout Gandia, Tomas Morato Ave., Quezon City) arranged by her manager, Leo Dominguez, Nathalie happily announced that, yes, she’s giving birth to a baby girl (to be named Penelope) in December after a civil wedding with her Indian boyfriend Mayank Sharma, a businessman.

“We will have three weddings,” said Nathalie. “After the civil wedding, a Catholic wedding in Sydney where my family is and then in New Delhi where Mayank’s family is. It’s going to be a big Hindi wedding with around 1,000 guests invited.”

Even if they belong to different religions (she Catholicism and he Hinduism), Nathalie said there won’t be any conflict.

“To understand my boyfriend better,” added Nathalie, “I’m reading about Hinduism and learning about the Indian culture, what kind of food they avoid and what the tradition is. I understand that Hinduism has 300 gods. But I’m sure that the cultural differences won’t affect our relationship.”

The sweethearts met in December last year at a wedding in India where they were introduced by Nathalie’s friend.

“It was memorable to him because it was his birthday,” recalled Nathalie. “Happy ako that I met him at a proper place, at a wedding, and not online. Cute-cute niya! He held my bag the whole night. When I kissed him, medyo napalapit sa lips niya. Sinadya ko ‘yon,” she added laughing, “kasi ayoko ng nalilito pa siya at para alam n’ya ang intensyon ko.”

They clicked on that first meeting.

Nathalie doesn’t look four months pregnant when she met with the movie press the other day

“After that, our friends didn’t know na naging kami na. Everything happened very fast. He came to celebrate the New Year with me and then went back to New Delhi. He has only one sibling samantalang ako, I have nine…four of us from the same set of parents and the rest, iba ang mother. All of them are abroad and I’m the only one left here. I have had a few boyfriends but not one of them mentioned anything about marriage. Only Mayank did.”

During her maternity leave, Nathalie won’t be missed because she has done several projects, Star Cinema’s Kusina Kings (now showing nationwide) in which she plays Zanjoe Marudo’s girlfriend and Empoy Marquez’s sister; Viva Films’ Abay Babes with Cristine Reyes, Meg Imperial, Roxanne Barcelo and Kylie Verzosa, directed by Don Cuaresma; Sunday Night with Diether Ocampo and Ricky Davao, directed by Lem Lorca; and the second remake of Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara, originally starring Susan Roces, Rosanna Ortiz and Dante Rivero with Celso ad. Castillo as director, and the first remake starring Lorna Tolentino, Dawn Zulueta and Tonton Gutierrez. Also starring JC De Vera, Barbara is the first project by ABS-CBN for Netflix.

“I play the title role played by Susan Roces,” said Nathalie, “and Mariel de Leon as my sister, played by Rosanna Ortiz in the original movie. It has been a busy year for me at good ‘yon because I will go on a maternity leave in September.”

Luckily, Nathalie’s prospective husband is not the jealous type and he’s not stopping Nathalie from making movies — that is, as long as she refrains from doing sexy roles.

“My management contract with Tito Leo is good for five more years and I still have nine movies to do. My boyfriend didn’t know until recently that I am an actress,” said Nathalie who would rather that Mayank doesn’t watch her sexy movies like Sin Island (with Xian Lim) and especially Siphayo. “When he asked me about my career, I told him, ‘I act.’”

While infanticipating, Nathalie is fond of eating singkamas, pineapple “at lahat ng maalat,” even including fish which, according to Filipino belief, is not good for expecting moms.

And how many kids do they plan to have?

“I want only four but my boyfriend wants six. But I assured him na apat lang ang kaya ko.”

 After their wedding(s), the couple plans to put up an out-sourcing business and an online retail business. 

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