Alden Richards reveals he ‘fell’ for Maine Mendoza, says AlDub his ‘biggest romance’

October 9, 2023 - 6:13 PM
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Alden Richards
Alden Richards in this photo from his Instagram on May 16, 2023 (aldenrichards02/Instagram)

Years after the heyday of popular love team AlDub, Kapuso heartthrob Alden Richards admitted “falling” for the other half of the tandem.

Alden in an appearance on GMA-7 talk show “Fast Talk With Boy Abunda” on Monday, October 9 admitted that AlDub was his biggest romance and biggest breakup.

“Did you fall for Maine Mendoza?” the veteran host asked in his program’s October 9 episode.

Alden paused and then smiled before answering.

“Yes, Tito Boy. Yes po. Hypocrite po kung hindi, and yes po, ayoko pong sabihing alam niya, pero I did confess,” he added.

The actor also answered positively when asked if he considers “AlDub” as his “biggest romance” and “biggest breakup.”

“Romance, yes, Tito Boy. Ang daming opportunities na dumating po sa buhay ko because of it. I’m very grateful to Maine. I’m very grateful to ‘Eat Bulaga,’ by all means. Sincerely,” Alden said.

“Kasi parang dun ko po naramdaman na talagang when you work hard for something, si Lord, ‘pag may hinihingi ka, hindi niya ‘yan ibibigay sa panahong gusto mong makuha. He always has this magic of giving it at the right timing. But break up, Tito Boy, yes,” he added.

“AlDub was also a breakup,” Tito Boy stated.

“A breakup. But let’s remove the negative context of break up in this conversation with AlDub. It doesn’t necessarily mean that when you’re going through a breakup, laging masama, laging masakit, laging malungkot,” the actor said.

“It was a break up because both of us, Maine and I, we needed growth. We needed to venture into our individual life, you know to learn [to] move,” Alden added.

“To move forward,” Tito Boy supplied.

“And move forward po, opo,” the actor said.

AlDub is a portmanteau of the names of Alden and “Yaya Dub,” the persona of Maine in “Eat Bulaga‘s” “Kalyeserye” segment that aired from July 2015 to December 2016.

At that time, Maine became popular for her viral Dubsmash videos where she lip-synchs to famous dialogues and imitates personalities like Kris Aquino. This inspired her nickname in the segment.

Their noontime segment followed Alden — dubbed the “Pambansang Bae” — and Yaya Dub’s courtship in the old-fashioned way, highlighting values such as showing respect for the elders and waiting for things to fall into place (known as “tamang panahon”).

By mid-2018, the actors had gone their separate ways.

The following year, Maine publicized her then-dating status with actor-politician Rep. Arjo Atayde (Quezon City, First District).

Last year, Maine revealed that she had encountered die-hard AlDub fans insisting she and Alden were married and had kids despite the discontinuation of their love team.

She is now married to Arjo, whom she admitted to having a crush on when she was still a teenager.

Alden, meanwhile, is still single.