Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino-Yap

(born February 14, 1971) is a Filipino television and movie personality who gained prominence from her talk shows, game shows, and numerous endorsements. In the April 2009 issue of Yes! Magazine she was cited as the second most powerful celebrity in the Philippines.[1][2]

Aquino is the youngest daughter of former Philippine senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. and Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, who served as the 11th President of the Philippines.

She was crowned as the 1990 Box Office Queen for her first movie,[citation needed] Pido Dida, Sabay Tayo, 2004 Box Office Queen for her hit movies such as Feng Shui and So... Happy Together.[citation needed] In 2006, she regained the same Box Office title for her movie Sukob, which is the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time.[citation needed] [3][not in citation given]She is also the Executive Editor of her own monthly magazine called K! The Kris Aquino Magazine. In December 2009, Aquino showcased her own Home Collection called "K Everyday". In partnership with ABS-CBN Licensing, K Everyday features Cooking Collection, Kitchen Collection, Plastic Collection, and Stationery Collection. All products were carefully chosen by Kris herself and carries her trademark letter "K" and a heart image.

She is currently part of ABS-CBN contract actresses. She is prominently considered as the Queen of Talk, as well as Queen of All Media due to her success in different media like television, film, recording, publishing, as well as product endorsements.

Career

In 1986, Kris Aquino, at 14, wanted to be an actress and would throw tantrums to get her way. The media was intimidated as she was the daughter of the President and she made her first TV appearance on Inday Badiday's See-Tru on GMA7. Her interview by Ate Luds on that show remains the highest rated show in the history of Philippine television, garnering 80+ ratings.[citation needed] Being young then, she was the star of the short-lived comedy show ABS-CBN Luv Ko Si Kris.

It was not until 1994, that she did Nandito Ako with action star Philip Salvador that started one of Aquino's highly controversial love affairs.[citation needed] Aquino became pregnant and had a child, Joshua.

With her movie career slowing, Aquino shifted her sights on a television career as a talk show host launched through Kris produced by Viva Television on Channel 4 (at that time named PTV, this was transferred to GMA Network which has partnership with Viva and after Viva's contract with PTV ended). It was in GMA Network showbiz oriented talk show Startalk where she co-hosted with Boy Abunda and Lolit Solis that her hosting capabilities were noticed.

After her GMA and Viva contracts expired, she went back to media conglomerate and GMA Network's rival ABS-CBN which noticed her undeniable hosting wit, offered her a contract and launched Today with Kris Aquino. She started hosting the showbiz news and talk show The Buzz in 1999 together with close friend Boy Abunda. In 2001, when game shows became popular in the Philippines, ABS-CBN tapped her to host Game KNB? to compete against IBC-13's local franchises of The Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

In January 2003 to May 2004, she hosted the talk show Morning Girls with Kris and Korina, alongside popular broadcast journalist Korina Sanchez. It was intended for only two weeks but went on for 16 months.

Not all of Aquino's television endeavors were hits; notable failures include Balitang Kris, which lasted for one season in 2001.

In 2007, she officially left The Buzz and Pilipinas, Game KNB? after giving birth to her second son, James. She was replaced by Edu Manzano in Pilipinas, Game KNB?. According to her, she had to give up her hosting stint on the said shows to give more time to her baby. It was also assumed that she does not want to go back to The Buzz because she no longer wants to work with former co-host Cristy Fermin[4][not in citation given] because of the hatchet job Fermin, Lolit Solis and cohorts did to her marriage with James Yap.

At present, she is an endorser for Purefoods corned beef as well as for Union Home Appliances, San Miguel Corporation and Nestle Philippines, Inc. Her commercial for San Miguel became the most remembered television commercial and was said to have a 99 percent audience recall.[5][not in citation given] She was paid a total of P20,000,000.00 for the endorsement. In 2007, she signed an endorsement contract with Facial Care Centre, a direct competitor of Belo Medical Group, which she has previously endorsed. Kris decided not to renew her contract with Belo Medical Group. It was uncertain as to whether her decision to transfer to Facial Care had something to do with the issue regarding James' alleged sexual encounter with a receptionist from Belo Medical Group.[6]

Aquino was bestowed the title of "Commercial Princess of the Philippines".[citation needed] The title was given to her for having numerous of TV and print appearances in Philippine media and for being one of the highest paid commercial endorsers in the Philippines, being at par with Sharon Cuneta.[7][dead link] In the October 2008 issue of YES! Magazine, Kris Aquino was considered top or the leading celebrity endorser, ranking number one among the twenty popular celebrity endorsers.[citation needed] In 2007, she was also the top celebrity endorser.[8][not in citation given] She closed several multi-million-peso endorsement deals this year 2008, and some people might be asking why? People in the business as well as advertisers will tell you that the “public” wants someone who tells the truth and is real. And that is what Kris Aquino is all about.[citation needed] “She is a fave of advertisers because she is very professional, and easy to work with.[citation needed] She arrives on the shoot prepared, with her lines memorized.[citation needed] Kris is the daughter of a past president and a national martyr ... Kris is seen as honest, and honesty is a very big advantage in advertising.”[citation needed] Her Kris Aquino Songs of Love and Healing and Songs of Love and Inspiration albums had gone platinum[citation needed] and her Current CD album under Universal Records, Greatest Love, a tribute to her mother is topping the charts nationwide and had gone gold in its first week of release.[citation needed] As of this writing, Kris and Baby James come together in one special project sure to give the moms a nice treat as Kris shares a musical 'edu-taining' album titled "We are 1". Released by Star Records, this album will allow young ones to learn and have fun at the same time. Kris is the executive editor of the very successful K Magazine of ABS -CBN publishing. "Carrying Kris celebrity equity, "K" is about getting her style, her personality, her lifestyle and her appeal. The magazine reflects the key concerns of the target marget presented by Kris herself: beauty, fashion, body, relationships, career, money and self."[citation needed] As Citizen Kris, she was recognized by the Bureau of Internal Revenue as the top individual taxpayer of 2007,[citation needed] 2006 as in previous years. She hosted the Philippine franchise of Deal or No Deal, which is part of ABS-CBN's primetime lineup. It ended its first season on February 23, 2007. The second season of the said game show started on June 11, 2007. She also hosts Boy & Kris, a morning talk show that replaced Homeboy, together with Boy Abunda,[9] and Be Bench, a model search show together with Piolo Pascual.[10][11]. Nestor Torre, a known critic of the Philippine Entertainment industry, pointed out that Kris took a lot of risks when she chose to give up her two former shows. The critic pointed out that giving up The Buzz and Pilipinas, Game KNB? deprived her of the major exposure that those two popular shows afforded her. Torre also noted that it is much more difficult to successfully launch new shows than to resume hosting programs that are already popular.[12]

She also hosted another TV franchise Wheel of Fortune, which incidentally replaced Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal. She said in an interview[citation needed] that she was a huge fan of the U.S. version and was thrilled to bring the show back to her country. However, not even Aquino was aware that Wheel of Fortune had already had one 2001-02 run in the Philippines, which was hosted by Rustom Padilla and Victoria Wonderheim. Currently, she is hosting Showbiz News Ngayon on its newest season. In October 2008 after former The Buzz co-host Cristy Fermin was suspended by ABS-CBN in working for their network, the Kapamilya network asked Kris to once again host the top-rated showbiz oriented talk show together with Boy Abunda and Ruffa Gutierrez. After much controversy, Kris is finally hosting The Buzz again starting on October 26, 2008.
[edit] Movie

Aquino got her start in movies with the help of Regal Films, one of the oldest film outfits in the Philippines. Her early film includes the Pido Dida series, where she was paired with comedian Rene Requiestas and earned her first box-office queen award. She later shifted into other roles, notably with massacre films such as The Vizconde Massacre, Myrna Diones Story, Elsa Castillo-Ang Katotohanan, and Humanda Ka Mayor. Despite her being a big draw in the box office, her acting skills were considered stiff and mechanical. She was dubbed then as "massacre queen" because of her portrayals in massacre movies which was the vogue during the time.

She first drew praise for her acting when she earned a nomination from the Gawad Urian award-giving body, composed of film critics, for the film The Fatima Buen Story. She eventually won a supporting actress award for the film Mano Po (2002 Regal Films), where she portrayed a weak-willed and submissive scion of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese clan. This was her comeback movie after her long layoff from movie acting.

But Aquino's most commercially-successful movies in her career are: Feng Shui, a Star Cinema production that featured Chinese influences and omen. Feng Shui, which was made during the wave of "Asian-style horror" flicks that spread throughout the continent since 2002's The Ring, made P180,218,395.[citation needed] It was the highest grossing Filipino movie of 2004,[citation needed] and the second most successful movie overall next to Spider-Man 2 which made over P225 million and earned Kris her second box office queen title.[citation needed] "Sukob," another horror thriller which she starred with Claudine Barretto in 2006, is the highest grossing Filipino film of all time[citation needed] surpassing Ang Tanging Ina, Anak & her own starrer, Feng Shui.

Like anyone else, Aquino had her share of box-office bombs. Her 2003 movie with actor Robin Padilla, You and Me Against the World, flopped at the box-office right from the start. Made for P25,000,000 and released immediately after Aquino won acting awards (for her performance in 2002's Mano Po), You and Me Against the World made only P4,389,005. The film's producers lost an estimated P23,000,000, even with home videos accounted. Because You and Me Against the World failed to attract an audience, several movie theaters pulled the film out and replaced it with another film. Some theaters were reported to have done this on the movie's second day of play.

Personal life

Aquino is known for her troubled relationships. In the mid-1990s, she was involved with a Purefoods basketball player, Alvin Patrimonio, who was then married. She was involved with then-Parañaque mayor (ex PBA basketball player and actor/tv host Joey Marquez) who was, at that time, married, and whom she later split with in a tumultuous ending. Kris made her admission about her relationship with the married Mayor Marquez in an interview by former co-host Korina Sanchez on the ABS-CBN newscast TV Patrol wherein she revealed, among others, that the Mayor infected her with the sexually transmitted disease Chlamydia.[13] Such admission became the highest-rating news segment in the history of Philippine newscast[14][dead link] that even those in the workplaces paused from their work to hear Aquino's' story.[15][dead link] Aquino filed charges of grave threat, illegal possession of firearms, grave coercion and less serious physical injuries against Marquez,[16] but the former eventually dropped charges against the latter when he made a public apology.[17]

She also had a live-in relationship with married actor Phillip Salvador with whom she has a son named Joshua.[18]

She is now married to Philippine Basketball Association professional player James Yap of the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants. James Yap is almost 10 years younger than her. They had their civil marriage on July 10, 2005. The following year, she announced on The Buzz that she was pregnant.[19] On April 19, 2007, Aquino gave birth to her first son by Yap on 5:52pm at Makati Medical Center in Makati City.[20]. Her son was named after his father and affectionately known as "Baby James". However, in early 2007, their marriage was rocked by the revelation of a former medical clinic receptionist that James Yap had an extra-marital affair with her [21]. James vehemently denied such affair in on interview with ABS-CBN's Korina Sanchez.

Aquino suffered a miscarriage with collapsed gestational sac and blighted ovum on March 25, 2008, a day after she announced that her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer