How Karen Davila learned to give unconditional love
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| “I would describe myself as extremely driven to succeed, extremely passionate, and obsessed when I put my mind to something and when I commit to something. I think it is the secret of succeeding at work,” Karen Davila says. |
We start our mornings with her insightful interviews and end
our day with her delivering the biggest news, but in between all that, she
juggles her family, coverage and tapings, advocacies, and a social life. What
does it take to be this superwoman? Here are 10 things you should know about
Karen Davila.
1. On Karen Davila,
the teenager: “I was the type that either you love me or you hate me.”
“I think there was a part of me that was always like this,”
she says of her chosen career path. “In high school (Colegio San Agustin) I was
the photographer and a school paper editor, in a way I always had that creative
writing side. The English teachers always loved me, and I was always the
contestant for the declamation contest.” She takes after her father, Armand
Tirol Davila, her being very driven and a go-getter, as well as her
hyperthyroidism that has always made her very active.
“If someone really knew me they really liked me, and those
who didn’t know me too well would think differently of me. I really had haters,
girls who just didn’t like me. Malakas ang dating ko. I always felt confident
with what I could do, it was mostly that. I knew i had something to offer. Di
naman ako genius, but I was bright essentially.”
2. She confesses she
is a workaholic (“Absolutely!”) and doesn’t remember the last time she felt
bored.
“I would describe myself as extremely driven to succeed,
extremely passionate, and obsessed when I put my mind to something and when I
commit to something. I think it is the secret of succeeding at work,” she
shares. “Before, work used to run our lives. It would have to be that what work
said, that’s how your schedule ran. Frankly, that is an unhealthy way to live.
You can’t make an entity run your life. You have to have a balance,” she warns.
Karen now makes it a point to travel more, spend more time with friends, and
above all, make time for her family.
3. On the saying that
“something’s gotta give”: “For a while it was my health. I had to quit bad
habits.”
“The cycle I will say is tough,” Karen explains. She gets up
at 6:30 a.m. to do Headstart, has coverage during the day, does Pasada 630 on
DZMM in the afternoon, goes home to spend time with her kids, heads to Bandila
by 9:30 p.m. and ends work at midnight. “The reason I can’t complain is I feel
blessed and grateful. Ang daming salesgirls umuuwi ng Cavite at Bulacan 11 p.m., papasok ng 8 a.m,
ganun din yun. Except yung akin, physically dependent because the voice needs
sleep.
“I saw a doctor often. I had to give up bad habits that
affected my voice. I had to give up coffee completely. I wake up to Headstart
on hot water! I don’t drink wine during the week, only weekends, and maybe a
max of three glasses. Any spare time I sleep. The only socials I can afford are
on weekends. I work out more. You know, it’s hard. The time management is
insane with me,” she admits.
4. Karen Davila in
numbers:
5,000: Amount in pesos of her first salary straight out of
graduating in UP, as a reporter and anchor in GMA
30-plus: Number of journalism awards won here and abroad.
The most meaningful one? “The TOYM Award in 2008.”
1,019,026: Number of followers on her Twitter account
@Karen_DaviLa. She has 60,508 followers on her Instagram account
@iamkarendavila. (As of press time.)
1: Dog they currently own, Lexi (named after Lexington Avenue in
New York City
where they bought her), a hypoallergenic Havanese.
200: Average number of text messages she sends out in one
day.
5. The secret to a
successful marriage despite being a successful career woman: “You have to build
up each other, you have to watch out for each other. I think that’s important.”
“DJ (Sta. Ana) and I have been married for 12 years, together
6 1/2 years before that. DJ is a very quiet man, a patient man. Marriage is not
easy. People are always very in love when they start but what makes people stay
together is the decision to really love and commit,” she says.
1. Respect: “I am very fortunate DJ is a very loving man. He
has allowed me to shine in terms of being in the klieg lights. And I respect
DJ’s achievements and work.”
2. Connectedness: “What I learned later on that I didn’t
know when I was younger, you have to do many things together. Because if you
don’t, you can grow apart in the marriage. There was a point that the only
thing we had in common was our career. We now spend more time together. And
kung may kwento, instead of sharing it with your friend, share it first with
your husband.”
3. Vanity: “You really have to make an effort to look good! Para you have that excitement still.”
4. Security: “I’m also very conscious because when we enter
a room, more people tend to pay attention to me than my husband. Si DJ, I’m
very fortunate, is very secure that way. He’s not the kind of guy who is going
to make a big issue out of that. In fact he’s the one who will guide me and
say, ‘Honey, you can do this,’ or ‘You can do this better.’”
6. On handling the
diagnosis that her son David had autism: “I refused to believe there was no
cure. I knew I had to do something.”
“I gave birth at 32. I loved being a mother but I didn’t
know what the milestones were because I was very busy working. Thank God I have
my mother (Purita Davila) to support me. The very tragic thing was I didn’t see
the signs early on. I always thought David was a quiet child. Lolas would say
maybe he would start speaking late. But at 3 1/2 years old he started throwing
a lot of tantrums, lying on the floor, screaming everywhere. And every time
there were other kids he was not interested to play.
“It was a good friend of mine, Small Laude, who was the
first to detect and say, ‘Karen, I think David has a problem. You need to bring
him to a Developmental Pediatrician.’ It was only then that Dr. Alexis Reyes
diagnosed him being in the autism spectrum or having autism,” she recalls. “I
cried.. I blamed myself. I asked God why him and not me.. This must be because
I did something wrong. We asked is there a cure, and the doctor said no. And it
broke my heart. DJ and I really broke down. We cried about David for so long.
“But the difference is, this is where being driven and
obsessed helped, I started to research. There were parents who were treating
their children through Biomedicine and the Casein gluten-free diet.”
They were seeing a Defeat Autism Now doctor. “We did that
for nine years, from four to 11. He has done stem cell twice. We have been
committed. I am very passionate about this. I am on an endless pursuit for
David’s best.
“Alam mo, the real one person who taught me how to love was
David. You have to be so patient with children with autism. They don’t respond
like regular children. Sometimes when the intervention is not full, they cannot
show you love back. There were very painful times when David was around five,
he was not hugging me, not saying I love you, he could not look me in the eye..
and nothing is more painful to a mother. So what David taught me was
unconditional love. Love that was one-way, literally coming from you alone.
But, praise God, now David has completely bloomed, he is now really close to
me, says ‘I love you Mommy and Daddy’ all the time, he speaks to us, we
converse, he has friends,” she says, beaming.
“Lucas was an accident too! Everyone was a great accident,”
she says with a laugh. “I gave birth to Lucas when I was already 38, and I was
petrified. I was too scared that my second baby might have a condition and I
might not be able to handle it as well. When I was pregnant I had to make sure
I did things carefully. I didn’t eat fish, I had omega 3 oil straight from
supplements, I had extra vitamins, I breastfed longer. There is no specific
cause but all I can say is I did things
differently. Lucas is the biggest blessing in the sense that he brings so much
riot and chaos to our house! He is so madaldal, he’s like me. He is a little
Karen!”
7. Karen’s most
impressive interview subjects ever:
1. Howard Schulz, CEO of Starbucks: “What’s amazing about
him is that he came from a very poor family and today is one of the richest men
in the world, because of how he made Starbucks global. But he is so down to
earth. At the age of 60 he still goes all around the world to visit his workers
and branches. He is a businessman who cares.”
2. Suze Orman, financial guru: “She was a waitress. She was
duped out of US$50,000 by one of the agents of Meryll Lynch, so she started
learning more about finance. She is quick, on point, natural. I love people
that are natural, they don’t study their answers. She’s very open.”
3. Mohammed Nasheed, former Maldivian President: “He was
tortured while in detention. But he chose to forgive all his torturers. He was
very young, in his early 40s. What he did was he confiscated all the wealth of
the past dictator and put it back to the country. He may not have been one of
the most successful presidents but it was impressive because he was trying.”
4. Juan Ponce Enrile: “At the age of 88, JPE’s memory is
very sharp. He is very quick. His recollection of history, although
controversial, is very detailed.”
5. Washington
SyCip: “He is 92. Ninety-two! He is an icon. When he guested on Headstart, he
came in one hour early and was watching me blowdry my hair,” she laughs in
embarrassment. “He said, ‘You know what, Karen, I just have one thing to tell
Gabby (Lopez). I will tell him to change the sofas in the makeup room.’” (Those
particular sofas are quite worn out.)
“He is friendly and charming! He’s very sharp, unafraid to
say what he thinks, goes to work every day, and he’s funny. When asked what his
secret is, he winks and says, ‘I wink at pretty girls.’”
8. Her strategy to
growing her money: “I am a very big saver. For some time now, I’ve been saving
80 percent of what I earn.”
“I do earn better money now. But that is also with the help
of good negotiation. It doesn’t come out of nowhere. If you are a broadcast
journalist in any part of the world, you negotiate your contract, and for this
I have to thank Boy Abunda,” she reveals. “Tito Boy came into my life when I
was already removed from TV Patrol in 2010 and transferred to Bandila. When he
called me I was in Hong Kong and I was already
told. Which for the record I found to be okay because it also happened in the
past — to Korina and me. I do understand the decision. I saw in him a genuine
friend who cared about my circumstances. Here kasi we are very uncomfortable
discussing money, nahihiya tayo to say ‘I’m worth this,’ and I think that
should change.”
“I don’t have a business but I save. At one point in my
life, my whole TV Patrol talent fee went to savings and I was living on my
salary from Correspondents and reportorial, and my husband’s salary. I am able
to buy good investments now. I invest in very safe mutual funds. Plus I am not
a victim of a collection of expensive bags. Relatively speaking, I have to say,
matipid ako!”
9. Known for her
effortless and easy style, Karen shares her top fashion picks:
1. Dresses: “I don’t have the time and energy to pick and
iron clothes so I started wearing a lot of the DVF wrap dresses and Techie Hagedorn’s
Alegre dresses. No fuss, it’s easy.”
2. Blouses: “I live in Zara. All their blouses, long
sleeves, so airy and easy.”
3. Jeans: “Gap. I may have a designer jean but I hardly wear
it. Gap jeans I have all the cuts and I can wear it from coverage to dinners.”
4. Shoes: “I live on my tributes! And now I like the pointy
heels. Zara, Saint Laurent,
Christian Louboutin. I have few, but quality pieces.”
5. Watches: “I love watches! I share with my husband. I am
not a jewelry person, I don’t really buy diamonds. I wear my Patek Philippe
Aquanaut forever. Then a Breguet and a Rolex Explorer.”
Karen’s first dream was to be a fashion designer.
10. On what more she
wants to prove and to who she wants to prove it to: “There’s nothing else I
want to prove except to be the best version of myself.”
“What I want to do now is improve on the reputation I have
already built. That I am a journalist na di tatanggap ng pera. People don’t
think it is a big deal, but it’s a very big deal. I want to have an untarnished
reputation. I don’t want to have political or envelopmental journalism baggage.
I want to be known as fearless or fair. I would never want to patronize anyone
corrupt. There is balance to it.”
* * *
It may not seem it with how fun-loving and bubbly Karen is, but she
didn’t have an easy life all the time. “There was a point in time when I was in
college, we had no money, we were broke. It was at that point I said, I don’t
want to be poor. I don’t want to be like this forever. I’ve experienced it and
I want to succeed,” she reveals. With a strong anchor on family, a solid value
system, and an infectious zest for life, she became what she is today. “Is
there anything else I would want to achieve? To live each day — in the most
present and loving manner — in every aspect.”
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