Paolo on Mylene: We’re on a ‘higher level’

Like Carmina Villarroel and Zoren Legaspi, all they lack is a piece of paper called a marriage contract. But Paolo Paraiso and Mylene Dizon, whose US-born son, Paolo Miguel, will turn one on March 30, are nonplussed.

"She has everything I can ever look for in a woman," admits the enamored Paolo. But he feels that tying the knot, although a possibility, will just take out the excitement in their going-great relationship. So Paolo and Mylene are doing what modern couples today practise. They continue taking care of each other and their baby in a house in Quezon City. Damn what the conservatives say.

"We spent our first Valentine’s Day together having breakfast at Mandarin Hotel (no, they did not check in). Our joys are that simple. We’re both early risers, see," reveals Paolo.

Sometimes, they’d hie off to Sam’s Garden in Tagaytay and take a whiff of fresh air for a change.

His relationship with Mylene, says Paolo, has reached "a much higher level." It has reached a point where jealousy need not rear its ugly head anymore. After all, Paolo and Mylene treat each other like best friends who can tell each other anything and everything under the sun.

They complement each other like coffee and cream.

Fatherhood has mellowed Paolo a lot. It has given him, in Paolo’s own words, more direction – a deeper purpose.

It has also taken him away from the company of drinking buddies he used to spend nights out with. Instead, Paolo stays at home to take care of Tomas, whose diapers the doting father changes himself. Paolo also feeds his "Burrito" (the baby’s pet name). This hands-on approach for him and Mylene started when Tomas was born and the brand-new parents – like most of their US counterparts – had to do everything themselves. But now that Paolo, Mylene and Tomas are back in the country, they have entrusted some of the baby caring to a nanny.

This gives Paolo more time for work, like a mini-fashion show called Redvolution at NBC Tent on Friday, Mar. 24 at 9 p.m. It’s the presenter’s (Metrobank Femme Visa) tribute to women on this month earmarked for them. Paolo and other male models will strut around in clothes that will tickle the women’s imagination without scandalizing the most buttoned-up among them.

Band performances, a fire dance exhibition, modern jazz dance display and all-night party are thrown in for good measure.

Why Paolo as the model of choice for the show?

"We wanted someone who is not that exposed to the sexy genre. Paolo is sexy and wholesome at the same time, just right for the product we’re pushing," one of the officers behind the show explains.

After going full throttle in showbiz via GMA 7’s Love to Love and Etheria and ABS-CBN’s Klasmeyts and Tabing Ilog, Paolo must have shoved thoughts of returning to modeling at the back burner. But athletic Paolo never forgot the discipline regular gym workouts (five times a week) and sports (basketball and boxing) have given him. That’s how the twentysomething Paolo has maintained that to-die-for body to this day.

"How I love waking up in the morning with muscles aching all over after a workout!" relates Paolo.

Okay, ladies. Eat your heart out. But remember: his heart still belongs to Mylene.