In This Corner of the Universe-Amalia Fuentes versus Joey

Dear Mga Tagasubaybay ng Showbiz Siglo 1960,

May pelikula ba si Amalia Fuentes? Panay na naman kasi ang mga balita tungkol sa kaniya. Ito ang karaniwang istorya ng hiwalayan na hindi naman talaga naghihiwalay.
Sino si Amalia Fuentes? Siya ang karibal noon ni Susan Roces sa popularidad bago ang Nora Aunor versus Vilma Santos takily-fight-for-the throne. Siya rin ang mother ni Liezl na asawa naman ni Albert Martinez.

Amalia-Joey show: Showdown, showtime


MANILA, Philippines—The humor is evident, even in the heat of indignation: “In a way, I am proud that a woman would still want a 75-year-old relic like my husband.”

Indeed, she adds with relish, “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

And if the woman in question is 1960s Sampaguita star Amalia Fuentes, one of the richest and most successful actress-producers in the local film industry, hell can also be a towering inferno.

Or rather, a singular episode of “The Jerry Springer Show” crossed with “Maalaala Mo Kaya.”

Two days after arriving from a five-month vacation in the United States on June 18, Fuentes discovered that second husband Joseph “Joey” Stevens, whom she married in 1979, was having an affair with a married woman from Cebu.

In an exclusive interview with the Inquirer in her sprawling Quezon City home, Fuentes said she never imagined that they would have a marital meltdown at this point in their lives.

“I am still in deep shock that I have to face this problem now,” lamented Fuentes, who is now 65.

The rumor of Stevens’ indiscretion was first reported in Inquirer Entertainment on Thursday.

Stevens himself confirmed the gossip during the interview with the couple, which was marked by an angry Fuentes constantly interjecting, badgering and contradicting her contrite-looking spouse.

Just a fling

“It’s just a fling,” said Stevens. “It’s just one of those things. Sometimes when you go out, you meet someone. I met her through friends in Cebu.”

He said he has confessed everything to his wife, and that he even told her the name of the other woman.

“Her name is Angie,” he said.

“I’m really confused now,” Fuentes interjected, bristling. “Earlier, he told me her name was Tetchie. Now, it’s Angie. I don’t want to think that he is trying to protect her because that will mean he really has feelings for her.”

A prominent family name also cropped up.

She said that one of her friends had told her that Stevens had been spotted with a woman in Manila.

“Rocky, as usual,” Stevens described the current state of their union, which Fuentes swiftly contradicted.

“Don’t say rocky as usual. It’s as if you’re blaming me. [In a text message] you said that I drove you away. How could I nag you when I was in the US for five months!”

What gets her goat, she said, was the “betrayal.”

Fuentes said Stevens had had “flings in the past, but these would end as soon as I found out.”

She recalled that one woman even called her up. “She complained to me that Joey was flirting with her. She was obviously scared of me,” she said.

Or at least the woman was sensitive enough to consider her feelings, she said.

Secret trips

“Joey was hiding his trips to Cebu from me. He reasoned that it was because I would scream at him. I retorted: ‘The screaming could come either before or after the fact, but it would definitely come. So what’s the point of hiding it? An affair is like a pregnancy. You can hide it in the beginning, but eventually it will show’.”

She said she was disappointed by the subterfuge. “All I need now from Joey is the respect that is due me as wife to him and mother to our child [Gerard]. If I don’t get respect at home, who will respect me in this country?”

To this, Stevens responded: “I’m sorry that I’ve hurt her feelings, but I never lost my respect for her.”

The interview was beginning to feel uncomfortably like a session with a marriage counselor.

“I want to work things out,” Stevens said. “I know that it will be a slow process. I’ve talked with [the other woman] already. I told her that [this affair] would be very hard to continue.”

Counseling

Fuentes was adamant: “I am willing to undergo [marriage] counseling if he is. I cannot force him. I’m just waiting for his next move. I want to know if he wants a divorce.”

“It never crossed my mind,” said Stevens.

“I’m the aggrieved party. If I ignore this, then that means I never cared about our marriage from the start,” Fuentes said. “I will not get a divorce. Since Joey and that woman didn’t show respect for our marriage, I will not give them the respectability they want. If he wants a divorce, then he should be the one to file for it.”

Married in Las Vegas

According to Fuentes, the couple married in Las Vegas on Aug. 2, 1979. (She gave the Inquirer a copy of their marriage certificate.)

“He proposed to me five times. Each time I tore up the marriage license he had offered to me. It’s because I wanted him to divorce his first wife [Puya Olondriz] before committing to him,” she said.

Once, she said, Stevens even followed her to the US when he learned that she was shooting back-to-back movies (“Sa Muling Pagkikita” and “Nagbalik na Lumipas”) with her first husband, Romeo Vasquez, in 1971.

“He was jealous of Bobby [Romeo’s nickname],” she said.

Fuentes and Vasquez also headlined Elwood Perez’s “Puwede Ako, Puwede Ka Pa Ba,” a top grosser in the first Metro Manila Film Festival in 1974.

Déjà vu

For Fuentes, what is happening with her marriage now feels like déjà vu.

In a lot of ways, her marital woes remind her of the breakup of her first marriage to Vasquez. She separated from Vasquez in 1969 after a little over two years of marriage.

“The only difference was when I left Bobby, he was young and he was at his handsomest,” she said.

“But still I got out of that flawed, crowded marriage. We were three in that relationship.”

It turned out that Vasquez had another woman. “And I could feel her presence all the time. If you can picture it, it was as if she was in the middle of our bed,” she said.

To make matters worse, “her name was also Nena [Amalia’s nickname]. So every time Bobby called me Nena, I would freak out. I’d ask him: Do you mean me or the other Nena? It was bad for me. So I had our marriage annulled for my peace of mind. It could’ve pushed me to drink or take drugs. But I saved myself.”

On the road

She said she was taking the same course of action in the current crisis.

“This morning, I walked to church and received Holy Communion. As soon as I arrived home, I exercised and lifted weights. For breakfast, I only had papaya. Now, I’m going to focus on myself and on my health. I am going to enjoy life.”

And she will be traveling again. “Traveling is my passion,” she said, having gone on holiday cruises to the Mediterranean and, most recently, to South America.

“The things you learn from traveling you can’t pick up from books,” she said.

She credits Stevens with being a good traveling companion.

“He says that he likes my sense of humor. We had fun abroad. We have lots of pictures of our trips together. In fact, I went to the Mediterranean, to Italy, Greece and Turkey with Joey and my daughter [by Vasquez] Liezel late last year,” she said.

Fuentes said that Liezel sent her a touching text message. “She said that she would support me in whatever I do. Of course, our son Gerard is very sad because he loves his father, but he understands. He was a source of strength and comfort throughout this ordeal. He has never left my side.”

Her trusted, longtime friends have also been very supportive. “They’ve sent me their prayers. They can relate to what I’m going through now,” she said.

As for discussing her problems in public, she said there was a good reason for it.

‘I smelled like food’

“I never talked about my marriage until now. I’ve always strived to keep our life private. But now I’m opening up because I want other women to become more aware also. A priest told me that being a good wife is not just about cooking and keeping house for your husband. I think Joey started to take me for granted because I grew fat. I admit that that was my fault.”

Now, she hardly spends time in the kitchen.

“Maybe before I smelled like food. Now, I’m always dressed and dolled up. I want to look beautiful again.”

This time, however, it is for herself and not for a man, she said.

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