Spoken like a true beauty pageant veteran.
I did join some pageants but it was back in the United Kingdom. I did Body Shots UK and I did Miss Philippines UK.
Then maybe you should also do other pageants, like Binibining Pilipinas.
The Hawaiian Tropic International in Las Vegas will be my last. Ha ha ha! I kept on saying before, in other pageants I did: “This will be my last. This will be my last.” But people would ask me to join and they would talk me into it and all that, so I’m like,“Okay, okay.” [But with Binibining Pilipinas], uh,
no. I feel that a pure Filipina girl should win that. I don’t feel worthy enough to win a title of, uhm, a homegrown pageant.
Yeah, tell us something about your British heritage.
I was born and was raised in England. By blood, my father’s British and my mom’s Filipina. My father died when I was younger so I grew up with just my single Filipino mom. So I kind of consider myself more Filipina because the culture was all there. I grew up eating the food. My mom was from Nueva Ecija so I would hear Ilocano, sometimes Tagalog. When you’re raised by a single parent who is pure Filipino, that’s like the main influence on me.
