SARAH-MATTEO

Secret weddings are one of the more exotic clichés in many a story of love, both fictional and real-life. Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare’s play resorted to one on account of their feuding families, as an example of the first case. In the real world, that tactic was used this week by Pop Princess Sarah Geronimo and Matteo Guidicelli, roughly three months since they announced their engagement late last year. Subterfuge was deemed necessary due to a cold reception to their relationship from Sarah’s mother. Following a routine workday at ABS-CBN network, Geronimo would meet up with Matteo for a civil ceremony on Thursday night.

ABS-CBN News has it that there was indeed a civil wedding ceremony that took place between Sarah Geronimo and fiancée Matteo Guidicelli on the evening of Thursday, February 20. The marriage was officiated in Taguig according to a source that shared information with ABS-CBN reporter MJ Felipe. This came in the wake of Sarah reporting to the Kapamilya network studio complex where she apparently went to work as normal, before leaving in a chauffeured ride as night fell. This was apparently to throw off Geronimo’s parents, who have never given their okay to their daughter’s relationship with Matteo despite their repeated attempts to gain blessing.

Ties between Sarah and her parents Delfin and Divine Geronimo showed some strain following her and Guidicelli’s announcement of their engagement last November 2019. It apparently has gotten so bad that the two feared interference from Sarah’s parents in a conventional wedding, hence a civil ceremony at Bonifacio Global City this week and one that they took pains to keep secret. Nevertheless, “Mommy” Divine did arrive on the scene following a day-itself leak of the wedding plans in the newspapers on Thursday. This led to an alleged incident that Matteo insists did not actually happen.

According to a supposed police report, when Divine Geronimo arrived during the civil wedding ceremony of her daughter Sarah and Matteo Guidicelli, the latter accused one of the family’s close-in security escorts of having revealed their plans, leading to him punching the guard which was then listed in the police blotter. Matteo tells ABS-CBN reporter Mario Dumaual over the phone that he punched nobody during the ceremony, though his now-wife Sarah has not yet given her side of the story. Regardless, he and she can breathe a sigh of relief at tying the knot after a relationship running six years.

Image courtesy of Manila Bulletin