Charles Teves
A more matured Gretchen Barretto could care less about what bashers say about her.
The veteran actress told Dr. Aivee Teo of the Aivee Clinic that no one has to live “for the approval of people.”
“They (bashers) used to bother me when I was so much younger… because I lived in a world where I felt that all they thought of me or their opinion would matter, or that’s all it mattered. But not anymore,” she said.
“I’m 51. I mean, really? How can all your opinion just matter?
“Parang I learned to live like, ‘Okay, I know everything I do is going to matter to them,” she said.
Her partner of 27-years Tonyboy Cojuangco has taught her a lot about handling criticism.
Earlier in Gretchen’s career when her mother had so many opinions of her, Tonyboy asked if any of them mattered.
“It was a long time ago when my mom had like opinions of me… and I was really, terribly distraught.
“He (Cojuangco) said… ‘I’ll ask you one question.’ Because I was really getting depressed. He goes, ‘Will it matter? Will your life change?’ He’s really good at that. And then I said, ‘No, not really.’
“And then he said to me, ‘Then why are you bothered?’ Then it opened my life. I learned na, oo nga ano. I mean, do they have control over my life, my lifestyle, or anything else?
“Whatever the situation is, I learned [that] whatever you accept is what it will be,” she recalled.
The Barretto family has been clouded with various controversies ever since their name got big.
Gretchen barely acts anymore but her fans can still interact with her through social media.
While she is no longer as active on the big and small screens, the public still gets to see a glimpse of her daily life through Instagram, where she has 1.6 million followers.
