Sharon is in the dining room, in a comfortable long-sleeved purple top, her face without make-up, after wrapping up her cover pictorial for YES! Magazine. She's talking about her daughters—the 10-year-old Simone Francesca Emmanuelle, better known as Frankie, and the 5-year-old Mariel Daniella Sophia, better known as Miel.
"Both of them are very malambing," she says, her hands busy clasping and unclasping a hair clip. "Frankie is the one who made mana the singing, and Miel is the dancer, a graceful dancer."
As if on cue, the doors of the dining room open, and Frankie and Miel rush in. Sharon's mouth widens into a smile. "Hi, honey!" she exclaims. She receives the kids in a tight hug and peppers them with kisses, asking how their day went and if they went swimming with their Pangilinan cousins.
A few moments earlier, Sharon stood up from her seat, went into the kitchen, and took out a wet towel with which she removed a stain on Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan's T-shirt. We wish the cameras captured those moments for us, if only to reveal a side of the Megastar that is reserved only for her three daughters and her husband.
Sharon admits that she has more time for her family now. That wasn't the case when family meant only KC and her. At that time, Sharon was doing three movies a year. Now, she spends most of her free days with the kids. And even if this takes its toll on her, sapping her of energy, she doesn't mind. "Mas masaya ngayon," she says. "Kasi there's more than one child. Pero para silang sampu! Pero I love it talaga."
It comes as no surprise that Frankie and Miel are attached to their mom, maybe even more so than regular kids are to their mothers. But Sharon is not complaining.
"I'm very proud of it, but more than the pride, I'm really, really blessed and really grateful that it's the way it is, that we're really all attached to each other. Miel says, 'Mama, I can't sleep without you.' So I sleep in their rooms. I put them to sleep—Miel first, because she falls asleep faster, and then Frankie. I really put them to sleep like babies.
"After that, I spend time with Kiko. And then Kiko and I ask, 'Do we sleepat?' That means we lipat them in their own rooms since they're already asleep.
"So it's usually me, Miel, Kiko, and Frankie. Sometimes, Frankie will say, 'Miel naman! Mama's also my mom too.' So it's nice naman, they're fighting over you!"
It won't be long before Frankie and Miel will have more competition for their mom's affection. The family recently welcomed an addition to their brood—a three-month-old baby boy named Miguel.
"Sa kanya lang ako hindi tumaba!" Sharon laughs as she introduces us to the handsome and smiling baby that she and Kiko have decided to adopt.
The plan to adopt wasn't a decision made in a rush. Sharon says there have always been offers for her to take in a baby. This was even before she got married to Kiko. And now that she already has three girls, it only seemed logical to adopt a boy.
"In the beginning, it wouldn't have mattered," she says. "But after my three girls, parang I was thinking how nice it would be to adopt a boy. And Kiko and I were saying maybe when they're bigger."
But when Sharon got a call from someone about Miguel, something inside her made her come to a quick decision, even if she hadn't seen the baby. "Wala ni MMS, wala pa 'kong nakikita. I really said, 'Akin 'yan! Wait, wait, gagawan ko ng paraan.'"
She talked to her husband next. "I just said, 'There's a baby,' ganyan-ganyan. 'Can I borrow him first just to play with him?' Hahaha! Ayaw ko nang ibalik! He asked, 'Up to when is the baby staying, sweetheart?' 'Forever? Can we have him forever?' Pero nai-in-love-in-love na siya. After that, he said he wants to make the lives of Filipinos better, and this one baby is given to us, di ba?"
The couple then decided to talk to the little girls about the latest member of the family. "Kinausap namin, because that was one of the concerns, parang baka magselos. But you know what, oddly enough, I think it will balance out the rivalry between the two pa, e. Because there's rivalry whether they admit it or not, e, di ba? Actually that's what happened. Miguel balanced it out."
Sharon says everyone is enamored with Miguel, even Frankie and Miel.
"The girls love him so much, they sleep nga in his room. Sabi ko naman, buti 'yon, tipid sa aircon, hahaha! Happy sila diyan. I put them to sleep. I'm hugging Miel and holding Miguel's hand, and then Frankie's in the other bed. Paggising ko, I ask for coffee, and then I'll ask yaya to bring him in the room, or I go to his room. Miguel comes in with the yaya, and if Miel hasn't gone to school yet, she comes with Miguel. Because Frankie leaves early for school, e. We're just there, together."
