Just because celebrity couples are getting married, it doesn’t mean that Dr. Vicki Belo and her long-time boyfriend Hayden Kho are “tempted” to follow suit. In fact, long before everybody started trying to outsmart everybody else in coming up with a “unique” style of proposing, Hayden had already done it in Dec. 2011 in Houston, Texas. It was the Mother of All Proposals secretly hatched by Hayden as a surprise for Vicki.
First, the wedding. Vicki deemed it wise to put it “on hold” because so many questions have been cropping up, which will be discussed in a while.
Now, the proposal.
It happened after Vicki delivered a talk at a medical conference in Houston. Hayden was with her on the trip, together with Vicki’s make-up artist who travels with her anywhere she goes. Vicki would soon discover why Hayden was in a tizzy, always busy with the computer that he kept away from Vicki.
“I thought he was having problems again,” Vicki told Funfare, “and I was a bit concerned. It turned out that he was cooking up a big surprise.”
Yes, the proposal.
Initially, Hayden wanted to do it in Morocco (that’s why he was arranging the side trip there via the computer) which was the only place on earth that Vicki had not been to, until the Houston trip changed Hayden’s “secret” plan.
On the night of Hayden’s proposal, he invited the still unsuspecting Vicki to check out an aquarium.
“Suddenly,” recalled Vicki, “I saw Hayden in the aquarium holding a card with the words ‘WILL YOU MARRY ME?’ written on it. No wonder he briefly disappeared from beside me. When I turned again, he was beside me na and a scuba diver appeared in the aquarium holding another card with a ‘SAY YES’ on it.”
Then, Hayden hired an expensive car to drive them around the city which was aglow with Christmas decors. It was a cold December, remember, so the “bedroom weather” was conducive to romance. More surprises for Vicki.
“I watched as every post that lined the streets would light up as we passed by,” continued Vicki. “Nakakaaliw! I would learn that Hayden had arranged it with the City Hall which gladly gave him the go-signal.”
That memorable night was capped by Hayden slipping an engagement ring into Vicki’s dainty finger, the same one that once wore a ring given to her by ex-husband Atom Henares (who has remained good friends with Vicki who has two children by him, Cristalle and Quark, now a director taking up advanced courses in film in the US).
“I’m not wearing the ring,” Vicki said with a tone of sadness, referring to the one given to him by Hayden (who refused to reveal how much it cost him). “There are so many questions kasi, eh.”
That is, concerning the wedding that Vicki has decided to unilaterally put “on hold,” never mind if Hayden is ready, willing and able to “commit” to it, going as far as asking Atom to help him draw up a pre-nup agreement.
Explained Vicki, “I’ve been through a marriage at nasunog na nga ako. I was young when Atom and I got married, and look what happened. Hayden is relatively young at marami pa siyang hindi alam tungkol sa marriage, he’s not fully aware of what marriage entails.”
Vicki and Atom were together for 15 years (four years going steady and 11 years married). When their marriage hit the rocks, Vicki fell in love with Joey Santos (head of House of Obagi, or HOO) and they lived-in for 16 years. After she and Joey broke up, Hayden came into Vicki’s life as if a gift from nowhere, an answered prayer. They’ve been together for 11 years which have been marked by trials but Vicki never abandoned Hayden (hindi niya iniwan sa ere, as the expression aptly puts it) even during the darkest period in his life (if you know what that means).
Hayden has emerged from that “dark period” a changed man, spiritually renewed and recharged after he turned Christian, guided by world-famous spiritual counselors. Hayden is said to take himself so seriously that he observes celibacy (or, as Kris Aquino would put it, “being chaste”).
Also a Christian, Vicki has been faithful to the same “rule,” claiming that the farthest that she and Hayden would go was kiss gently on the cheeks and hold hands, never beyond that. Vicki said that when they travel, she and her makeup artist stay in one room and Hayden in a separate room.
The age-gap is a bit worrisome, too.
“Hayden is 34,” said Vicki. “When I turn 60, he will be 37. I think he won’t have the same mindset by then. So even if he believes that he’s ready for marriage, I really doubt it,” not even if Hayden has been vocal about his desire to have a baby with Vicki. So Vicki is telling Hayden to think things over — “You know, isip-isp muna. Isipin nang mabuti.”
Meanwhile, Vicki’s friend Marian Rivera and her sweetheart Dingdong Dantes will beat Vicki and Hayden to the altar as they get married on Dec. 30 at the Immaculate Conception Church (in Cubao, Quezon City), with Vicki as one of the principal sponsors. Asked what her wedding gift to Marian and Dingdong is, Vicki said, “The honeymoon. I’m suggesting Africa but then, the Ebola scare. I will let them choose where they want to go.”
As the year winds up, Vicki faces a big dilemma: Get married or let Hayden go.
“It’s a hard decision to make,” agreed Vicki.
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