In the excerpt below, KC Concepcion gives an update on her latest pursuits, strengthening her e-commerce presence, and living a bicontinental lifestyle. She is also shutting down dating rumors, discussing dreams about starting a family, and manifesting the kind of man she wants to settle down with.
Related: KC Concepcion is Back to Acting in the New Film Asian Persuasion
KC has always been viewed as someone who comes from privilege, and someone whose choices were always available to her. But KC didn’t take these opportunities for granted, and she knows that she did her best to earn the right to have these opportunities.
“There’s two ways you can handle being given opportunities on a silver platter, either which I’ve seen,” she explains. “Either you’re comfortable just passively living life and you don’t want to work, and you just spend all the money and one day freak out because it’s gone—or maybe it’ll never be gone—but you’re still not doing anything on your own, or you have all of that and you grow it. And you make it bigger, and you hire people, and give people jobs. And you just learn how to handle money, and you learn how to grow something, and you make it bigger than it is. So, you cannot fault someone for having been born with privilege. What you can fault them for is what they do with it.
“I’m a global Filipina, I think. I’m definitely somebody that could’ve limited herself, but I’m always curious about, ‘Hey, what else is out there?’ I have that side of me that works with the UN [United Nations], works with WWF [World Wide Fund for Nature], and then I have people in my family that are obviously in public service. So, it’s how to meld those worlds. So, that’s why Love, KC, you know, is really a social enterprise. And KC’s Closet started as a social enterprise, and now it’s just everyone’s secret resale shop, preloved shop, kasi it’s just for women and stuff. I like to bring people along with me because I recognize not everyone has a chance to travel around, not everyone has a chance to access things.
It’s still me. And I don’t think I would feel as empowered had I not gone through the entertainment kasi I have a better understanding of people, of storytelling. “My life will never be separate from entertainment. Nasa DNA na namin. So, once in entertainment, always in entertainment. Especially naman ’yung dito na talaga ako lumaki. Wala naman akong ibang alam, you know.
“This is home for me. Entertainment is home for me. My life doesn’t feel complete when I don’t share it with people. My life doesn’t feel normal when there’s no audience.”
KC CONCEPCION
KC admits that it was challenging to grow up in the public eye, in the world of entertainment and politics.
“I had a love-hate relationship with cameras growing up kasi,” she says. “I’ve seen the worst of people and I’ve seen the best of people, growing up in both showbiz and politics. People want to harm you, and there are people who love you. And there are people who think they hate you, but they actually watch you. So, showbiz and politics bring out the best and the worst in people. And we’re no strangers, in our family, to that. It’s so much deeper than just everything we’re saying or talking about now. It goes so much deeper for me than that kasi it’s our lives, like it has affected us in so many ways as a family to be so public, you know. And I think it has been a great victory also for our family at any time, we’re able to gather instead of scatter. That’s a great victory for us. So, all the more, family is so important, more and more.”
And speaking of family, the thought of settling down is something that keeps playing in her head:
“To be super honest—and I’ve had this conversation with my nearest and dearest—I thought the last six years, that taking a step back from mainstream entertainment was the answer to me finally settling down.
“It wasn’t a goal but it was one of the things I was always thinking about. I was always like contemplating, ‘How am I ever going to nurture a serious relationship when I was doing so much?’
“And then, of course, my family. ’Yung energy mo parang hating-hati kasi ’yung ibang artista sikat, ganyan, pero ’yung family hindi naman pinapakialaman ng mga tao. So, parang ang nangyayari diyan, they have all the energy to nurture their… Sa amin, parang, ‘’Yung mommy mo ganito, may nangyayari dito, ’yung papa mo ganyan.’
“So parang lahat ’yun, you have to attend to. Okay lang naman pero ubos ka. Ubos ka, ang dami, e. So, I thought, ‘Okay, this is it. This is it na talaga.’ Kasi may time ako, magkaka-time ako, ganiyan. ‘Okay. May time akong makipag-date.’ Dati kasi pag tatawag, ‘Ano ba ’yan panira ng ano. Sa one minute na ’yun, kumita na ako ng pera, ’tapos kausap kita.’ Wala lang.
“’Yung parang, in your mind, parang, ‘Nakikipag-chikahan lang ba ako? Small talk, small talk?’ So, I reintegrated myself sa social life. And then I was like, ‘Okay, ito na ’yun.’ So, nagkaroon naman ng long-term relationships, pero hindi pa rin siya nauwi sa marriage. It’s funny because kung kelan naman na parang, ‘Okay, I left,’ ngayon ako nakaka-meet ng faulty guys. So, ito nanaman ako, ‘Paano na naman? Ano ba pipiliin ko?’ But, ’yun, e, sometimes I don’t like to control.”
For a self-confessed alpha woman like KC, it’s hard to strike a balance between being proactive with her goal to start a family and just letting it happen on its own, organically.
“Proactive. But for me, nothing is forced,” KC says on her stance on finding love.
When I ask her how she sees the embodiment of that man who will finally fulfill this dream, she is clear on what he should be like.
“A secure man. And a handsome and sexy one at that!”
KC may be different from us mere mortals in many ways, but as a woman looking for the one, she is also just like us—except that maybe, she’s just a little more sure about what to look for.
Read more about KC Concepcion’s global influence in MEGA Entertainment’s May 2022 issue available in Readly, Magzter, Press Reader and Zinio
Photography MIGUEL ALOMAJAN
Creative Direction NICOLE ALMERO
Beauty Direction MIA CASTRO
Fashion Direction RYUJI SHIOMITSU
Makeup MIKKA MARCAIDA
Hair JAN EDROSOLAN
Styling ADRIANNE CONCEPCION assisted by DODLEY GALLARDO
Shoot coordination KZ FRANCISCO and MJ ALMERO
Shot on location KMC ARMSTRONG CORPORATE CENTER
