Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino, better known as Kris Aquino (born February 14, 1971 in Quezon City, Philippines) is a prominent television and movie personality in the Philippines.
She is the fifth and youngest child of Corazon Aquino, former President of the Philippines and Benigno Aquino, Jr., a popular opposition senator during the Marcos regime. She is the youngest of five siblings: Maria Elena, Aurora Corazon, Benigno the III, who is currently Tarlac representative and Victoria Eliza. She and her only brother are the only ones left unmarried among them.
In recent years, Aquino has been labeled "The Philippines' Queen of Talk," due to her success in hosting talk shows. She was also crowned as the 2004 Box Office Queen for her hit movies such as Feng Shui and So... Happy Together.
Aquino spent most of her elementary school days in the United States because the Aquino family was in exile. After returning to the Philippines in 1983, Aquino started out as a precocious presence in rallies against the Marcos government.
After the 1986 expulsion of President Ferdinand Marcos, the teenaged Kris stepped into the limelight, starting with guest spots on television dramas and comedies, as well as talk shows. Finally, she made her film debut with actor Rene Requiestas
in the comedy Pido Dida.
Aquino afterwards had a commercially steady, though critically panned career and managed to score an acting nomination for The Fatima Buen Story. She also starred in a film based on a true-life murder, The Vizconde Massacre. Its financial success and successive crime films of the same vein in which she starred in gained her the nickname "Massacre Queen" by newspaper critics.
Kris graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature.
It was not until 1994, that she did a film (Nandito Ako) with action star Philip Salvador that started one of Kris' very controversial love affairs. Aquino became pregnant and had a child, Joshua, who has ADHD.
With her movie career slowing, Aquino shifted her sights on a television career as a talk show host launched through The Kris Aquino Show produced by VIVA on Channel 4. But it was in GMA Network showbiz oriented talk show Startalk where she co-hosted with Boy Abunda and Lolit Solis that her hosting capabilities were noticed. Media conglomerate and GMA Network's rival ABS-CBN noticed her undeniable hosting wit, offered her a contract and launched Today with Kris Aquino, one of the most successful talk shows of the 1990s. In January 2003 to May 2004, she hosted yet another successful morning talk show entitled Morning Girls with Kris and Korina alongside popular media personality Korina Sanchez. As of 2005, she hostsThe Buzz with Mr. Boy Abunda and Ms. Cristy Fermin for the same network, as well as Pilipinas, Game KNB?, a game show similar in format to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. She had been also controversial for wearing plunging dresses which noted her as a fashion-talk show queen.
Aquino is also known for her troublesome relationships. Over the past decade, she has been linked to two married men. Her latest relationship became a cause célèbre in 2003 after it ended in gunplay and Aquino accused her lover, former Parañaque mayor and actor Joey Marquez, on live television, of giving her venereal disease. At present, Kris is linked having a relationship with the local PBA player, her fiancé, James Yap. Although no formal announcement has been made by the couple, there have been speculations that they will marry sometime in 2006.
