It wasn’t until they conceived a child that their relationship came to a bitter end, Asia’s Queen of Songs Pilita Corrales said of her love affair with veteran actor Eddie Gutierrez.

“We became pregnant, and he sort of didn’t like the idea,” Pilita said in an interview with “Pipol” that aired in 2001.

“‘Why don’t you just go to Japan and I will pay for the abortion?’ [Eddie said] at that time. I said no. The moment he found out I was pregnant, that was it. We never saw each other again,” Pilita said.

Now over 10 years since her first interview with “Pipol” anchor Ces Orena-Drilon, Pilita said that although Eddie was not ready to become a father at the time, he and his current wife, talent manager Annabelle Rama, have welcomed Ramon Christopher, Corrales’ son with Eddie.

Ramon Christopher was already 16 years old when he saw his father, the singer said.

“Now, he’s just like one of the children of Eddie and Annabelle, and the way Annabelle loves his children, and the children of Monching (Ramon Christopher) and everything, it’s just like walang nangyari,” Pilita told “Pipol” in an interview that aired Monday.

‘I loved him’

With the dust having settled, Pilita recounted how her relationship with Eddie came to an end in 1971.

“We were doing a show in ABS-CBN called ‘Stop, Look and Listen,’ so we would be together all the time. And then we made movies together also, and I used to [do guestings] and everything,” Pilita recalled.

But even as their romance bloomed, Pilita said Eddie also nurtured relationships with other women.

“I loved him. But at the same time he was going out with me, he was also going out with this and that and this and that. I was broken-hearted,” Pilita said.

Eddie’s ‘true love’

Their eventual split over her pregnancy became the subject of nasty rumors, Pilita added.

“People would say, ‘I knew it — that’s why these people na kumakanta sa nightclub and everything, mga walang kwenta ‘yun. Basta ano lang ‘yan, anybody who comes okay lang sa kanila.’ My mother used to be so hurt because it wasn’t true,” she said.

More than four decades since their separation, Pilita and Eddie cannot seem to escape their romantic history, as talks of their “great love” resurfaced when the bitter feud of Rama with former actress Amalia Fuentes kicked into high gear.

Amalia, a former girlfriend of Eddie, claimed that despite his marriage to Rama, “ang one true love ni Eddie, and that is coming from him, is si Pilita Corrales.”

For her part, Annabelle only conceded, “Pareho kaming dalawang Bisaya [ni Pilita]. Talaga namang minahal ni Eddie si Pilita.”

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