Nathalie putting love on hold
Barely two years ago when she talked to Funfare, Nathalie Hart was pregnant and looking forward to living happily ever after with Mayank Sharma, her Indian-businessman boyfriend. That was in July 2018.
Fast-forward to Feb. 27, Thursday, Coffee Project, Quezon City: Nathalie was as slim as she was pre-pregnancy and she was telling movie writers that she separated from her husband and she’s happily back home to resume her rudely-interrupted showbiz career…and taking care of her daughter Penelope Gayaptry Snell (Nathalie’s real surname).
In that July 2018 interview, Nathalie announced, aside from giving birth in December, that she and Mayank got married in civil ceremony, and the plan was to have not just one but two weddings, a Catholic one in Sydney where the family of Nathalie (who is half-Australian/half-Filipino) is and a big Hindi nuptials in New Delhi where Mayank’s family is, “with around 1,000 guests expected.”
The two met in December 2017 at a wedding in India where they were introduced to each other by Nathalie’s friend. He didn’t know that Nathalie was an actress until much later.
“It was memorable to him because it was his birthday,” Nathalie had recalled. “I was happy 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 ang lips ko sa lips niya. Sinadya ko ‘yon,” she added laughing, “kasi ayoko ng nalilito pa siya at para alam niya ang intensyon ko.”
To understand her boyfriend better, according to Nathalie then, she started reading about Hinduism and learning about Indian culture — “What kind of food they avoid and what their tradition is. I understand that Hinduism has 300 gods.”
Even if they belonged to different religions, according to Nathalie, there wouldn’t be any conflict. Spoken too soon.
The specter of “cultural and religious differences” began to hover over the marriage. Nathalie quit showbiz (after starring with Xian Lim in Sin Island, among other projects) and moved to New Delhi where her husband’s family owns a construction business.
“We lived in a big house,” Nathalie is now saying, “and I was ready to embrace their culture…that once married, you have to really be a wife and stay home and take care of the kids. That was fine with me. Filipinos are conservative but we are more open-minded than, you know, that side of the world. Most Southeast Asian people are very different from us.”
That big house began to feel like a gilded cage.
“There were so many restrictions,” confesses Nathalie. “We started fighting even over small things. Verbal clashes lang naman, nothing physical. He didn’t understand the fact that I wanted to be given the opportunity to, you know, do something else with my life. The problems started to pile up, until I felt that I wasn’t myself anymore, kung ganoon ba talaga ang tunay kong ugali; I wasn’t able to speak my mind. The more we fought, the more we didn’t understand each other.”
Still and all, Nathalie says that she and Mayank continue to communicate with each other.
“He was just here last week. He’s supporting our baby.”
Managed by Leo Dominguez, Nathalie is back in showbiz to keep body and soul together.
She was set to leave for Japan last Friday to shoot a movie, Steal, for Viva Films, directed by Bona Fajardo, simultaneously with two other movies, Kunyari Mahal Kita with Ryza Cenon and Joseph Marco (directed by Roderick Lindayag) and Pakboys with Andrew E. and Janno Gibbs (directed by Al Tantay). She has a film titled Sunday Night Fever (directed by Lem Lorca) with Diether Ocampo and Ricky Davao now streaming on iWant.
With her time divided between work and mothering, Nathalie is putting love (getting into a new relationship) on hold.
“If ever,” she muses, “sana ‘yung patient, responsible and open-minded.” She confessed that she has survived three other relationships and the last one was “the most dramatic and the most restrictive.”
No more chance for reconciliation?
“I’m happy as I am now, as things are. I want to stay here. I don’t want to go back there.”
(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)
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