Markus Paterson opened up on his relationship with Janella Salvador, revealing the reason they finally decided to go public after almost two years of being together. It had something to do with his girlfriend’s successful love team with Joshua Garcia.
The young sweethearts, both 22, recently confirmed their long-rumored romance via sweet social media posts.
In a chat with his actor friend Kyle Echarri on the latter’s YouTube channel, the Filipino-British actor-singer said he has been with the actress, whom he called “love of my life,” for one year and eight months already.
When asked what made him think it was time to own up to the relationship, Markus said, “‘Cause for some reason, we were having a huge surge of bashing on Twitter and Instagram.”
The bashing appeared to have come from some fans who wanted Janella to end up for real with Joshua Garcia, her love team partner on the ABS-CBN series The Killer Bride, which ran from August 2019 to January 2020.
Markus said that he has nothing against Joshua and he understands why their tandem, which fans christened as JoshNella, clicked. “I love Josh, he’s a great guy, he’s a brilliant actor, I’ve always been a fan since his time with Julia (Barretto). And him and Janella have this insane chemistry on screen and I understand, I appreciate and I love to see them onscreen.
“But hey, guess what, I’m not a two-year-old. I’m not like, ‘Oh my god, this is my girlfriend, oh no, no, no!’ No, dude, because they’re professionals, they’re brilliant actors and actresses, they’re working. I understand people feel a certain way about them. But it’s 2020. If they feel like ‘team reel’ should be ‘team real,’ I get the point, but what the Philippine public has to understand that actors are human, too.
“And it’s their choice if they want to take the love team to the next level. It’s their choice. They’re never doing things to please the fans. That should always be the base like, you know, it’s never to please the fans. It’s for you guys, yes, but to every request that you have like, ‘Oh sayang, mas bagay kayo, sayang si ano ganun, ganun, di bagay sayo (kasi) panget or kano, di bagay sayo,’ no,” he added.
He said he’ll never work with Janella because he thinks they won’t work onscreen. However, he said he will not give up the “love of my life” just because fans don’t want them together.
“That’s why me and Janella will never work together. I’ve said this in interviews before that we will never work together because I feel that we don’t look good together on screen. But she’s the love of my life and I will never lose her to a fan’s choice. I’m sorry, just saying that.
“I’ll never read a tweet and be like, ‘Damn, joshnella692 told me that I really have an ugly forehead so I don’t think we should date anymore (laughs).’ That’s never gonna be part of my thought process.”
Markus also lamented the bashing he gets online, saying that like everyone else, he also gets affected.
“Obviously, everybody is entitled to their own opinion, that’s great and I’m all for voicing it on social media, you can talk about it and debate people online… But saying things that intend to hurt or ruin somebody’s day, that you shouldn’t normalize.
“Like bashing, it shouldn’t be normalized, although obviously, it’s normal. That’s what’s annoying about social media… My management, (they tell me), ‘Masanay ka na, ganun talaga,’ at sa akin lang, hindi dapat ganun…
“I mean, most of my bashers are like, 35 to 40 years old. Hey, do you have kids? Do you have family? Would you like what you’re saying to people to be said about your daughter or your son? That’s all I’m saying.”
He also defended the team-up of JoshNella as he claimed that he was unbothered by reports that came out about Joshua and Janella at the height of their series. These included the much-talked-about thanksgiving after-party, where the two stars appeared sweet to each other and had co-stars teasing them together.
He said Janella had explained things to her and he likewise trusted her. He added that Joshua was only doing his job.
“Ever since we came out as a couple — it’s been a year and half coming — there’s a lot of tweets saying that now we’ve come out, all the things that Joshua used to say and do with Killer Bride is cringy and like gross and stuff,” he said.
“Guys, you have to understand they were in a teleserye together, they had to sell that. There’s nothing cringy about that. The reason why I didn’t say anything about it because I understood it. They’re a love team, right?
“That’s why it took us a year and eight months to come out with this relationship. Because they’re a love team and it’s a marketing thing. I wanted to see them prosper together because I’m not 10 years old. It’s that simple.”
During the entire vlog, however, they didn’t talk about the biggest question being asked now by fans as to why Markus is back home in the UK, bringing along Janella and her family.
Meanwhile, you can watch Markus discuss JoshNella from the 24:00 mark.
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