TOPAZ HORIZON

I should be blogging about our recent staycation at the beautiful and wonderful Ascott Makati. And I should be blogging about my cooking and mealtime and dining tips because of my blog sponsor, Jolly. And I should be getting my Ask Frances post up and ready for publishing tomorrow... but I'm not. I can't. Because Angelina and Brad are no more!!!

To most of you who have been following this blog, you'd know that in my past life, I was the editor-in-chief of OK! magazine. My stint in OK! began during the wildest days of Hollywood—Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's reality TV marriage, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's whirlwind romance, and the never-ending Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie-Jen Aniston saga. My goodness. Some of the very best days in my life!

So I just can't remove myself from all the gossip sites this week because Angelina just divorced Brad! And in the most ruthless and shocking way, too—just like what Katie did to Tom.

If Angelina does it like Katie, Brad will never see those kids again (Although he'll fight for custody, says TMZ). Yes, didn't you know? Katie annihilated Tom in such blitzkrieg fashion that he agreed to all her terms of the divorce within a few weeks and now he hasn't seen Suri in years. Years. His only biological daughter. And we used to say Katie was a brainless zombie.

I'm pretty sure Angelina will demolish Brad, too. She's doing it now in the media. Master manipulator Angelina Jolie is one of the very few who came out of a lurid affair splashed all over the tabloids as a saint. Remember her moniker in the height of her mistress days? Santa Angelina. However does a mistress become a Santa Angelina??? Easy. Befriend media, send gifts, always be available for calls and clarifications, but always have a story about your charity, UN work, movie work, dying/dead mother, and beautiful kids. Change the story. I know this because I was in the thick of it in an international OK! conference, where the editors of the other OK! franchises were stunned at how Angelina always made the story about her goodness, not about the affair. And all those millions upon millions she and Brad made whenever they got pregnant, gave birth, and adopted! Brilliant!

I don't hate Angelina, okay (even though I'm Team Aniston all the way!). I have utmost respect for her. In fact, I think of her whenever Taylor Swift flounders about controlling her image. I always think, "Learn from Angelina, Tay!" The only person I can think of these days who is master at manipulating media, controlling her image, and milking said image for millions of dollars is Kim Kardashian West.

And Angelina's doing it now again. She released news of her divorce on a Tuesday, so all the print media have gone to bed and now can't really come out with the story till next week. So again she gets to control the narrative. Brad is left reeling and angry, upset that her wanting to have sole physical custody and then insinuating that Brad has a nasty temper and uses drugs implies to all that he is a danger to their kids. Wow! What a nasty reason to end a marriage, if true! And no, it's not because he allegedly cheated on her (not true at all!), but it's fascinating that the cheating news came out almost exactly the same time Angelina allowed TMZ to break news of her divorce. Hmmm.

It's getting ugly. And that makes me sad. There are kids involved. Six beautiful kids. And didn't this story start in such a—er, breaking up the Aniston-Pitt marriage aside—didn't this love story start in such a beautiful way? Two gorgeous and sexy people meet and fall in love, do charity work together, and raise a family together, while traveling the world as possibly the coolest family ever.

Woah. All this Brangelina news is seriously giving me intense Throwback Thursday feels. It's also making me terribly sad because while I wasn't a fan, those kids and their obvious affection won me over. I love a love story. Don't you?

My takeaway from this (and from every Hollywood divorce) is this: Don't forget your love story, don't forget why you fell in love in the first place (the past), don't forget the plans you made together (the future). Marriage is hard. I know. I'm married! Vince and I have gone through struggles. We're changing, our life is changing. It's so easy to drift apart. That's why you have to commit every day. Sometimes, I refuse to commit. That's when I complain, I bitch, I refuse to serve him. Sometimes he doesn't commit by doing the same thing. It happens. No one's perfect! But when we both fail to commit every day for days and days, then that's when real trouble sets in. And we have to guard our marriage against that. Let's make a stand to protect our marriages!

There's this beautiful poem by Abi Oborne of the blog Like Real Life going around the mommy circles and I'm reposting part of it below. Please read the rest of it on Abi's blog!

It's made me cry because I've felt that sometimes, that nobody sees me—the mama who is awake in the middle of the night, checking if her kids are cold, patting them softly back to sleep when they wake from nightmares, praying over them, breastfeeding, working in the dark so the kids won't wake up, crying and praying when the clients don't pay and the bills are here, chatting with the kid who wakes up and asks questions about life at 3 a.m., rising again when another kid asks for water, and basically not sleeping at all.

My nights are always chaotic but sweet.

But I also know that people do see me, the mommy me. Because I go on Facebook or Instagram in the dead of night and I post a status or share a photo and guess who likes and comments? Mommies, too. Yes, all of us moms awake in the wee hours of the morning. We silly, wonderful, exhausted, tireless, blessed mommies!

I see you. Thanks for seeing me, too. If only on Facebook! If only here on my blog. Thank you, fellow mommy.


(continued here)


Good night, dear mommies! Try to get some sleep. God bless us all!