Toni Gonzaga talked about her past controversy
Ultimate Multimedia Star Toni Gonzaga said that the backlash she received in 2022 made her kinder, and she did not expect this.
Toni experienced massive public backlash in 2022 due to her active political alignment with the UniTeam alliance of the winning tandem of President Bongbong Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte during the Philippine presidential election.
The actress-host was criticized for supporting the politicians who were accused of being behind the shutdown of her home network for a long time, ABS-CBN.
In a recent interview on the Unshaken podcast hosted by Gary Valenciano, Toni Gonzaga discussed the severe public scrutiny she experienced following her 2022 political endorsements.
She shared that she was privately navigating a pregnancy during this challenging time and confessed to feeling that the digital backlash would be permanent.
“There was never a time when I felt things would get better or that they would [ease up],” she said, based on the article in ABS-CBN Entertainment.
Back then, Toni was pregnant, an she revealed that she received death threats. I was pregnant at the time and received death wishes.
Toni admitted that she never thought it would be quiet again, as she can still hear some noises here and there. On the other hand, her mindset was changed, and everyting internally.
“I thought I was going to be bitter, mean to people, pero naging kinder ako, softer, more understanding, more compassionate,” the actress-host said.
Even though she was the “most hated” at that time, she fet most loved from being who believed in her. “That was the time when I felt the most loved by my family, random people, and people I admire. Every day, God would send me someone who would tell me, ‘You are loved.’ When I was most hated, I felt most loved,” Toni said.
She also shared that she thought her career was over after going through that controversy. However, she was still able to bounce back.
With what she went through, Toni Gonzaga highlighted the importance of choosing battles. For her, one cannot fight battles by debating or arguing with people.
“You will never win because someone will always be more intelligent and capable of defending themselves than you. There is always more than what you have and know. And you’ll never know,” the actress-host said.