Celeste Cortesi’s next era hits the big screen: A baby, a beauty brand, an unscripted show

Celeste Cortesi has spent the past year living her most private moments in front of cameras. On Monday, Aug. 3, she watched it back in public for the first time, on the big screen, with a full cinema watching alongside her.

Manila-based production company Goat Creative Studios marked its official launch with a media event and advance screening of “Celeste Unscripted” at Greenbelt Cinema 4 in Makati City, giving the press a first look at the docuseries before it premiered Saturday, Aug. 8.

Even after Cortesi lived through one of the most talked-about heartbreaks in Philippine pageantry, she never left the spotlight. The campaigns kept coming, her beauty brand grew, and the headlines about her private life wrote themselves. What the public never got was her side of the story.

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“In pageantry, when I do interviews, I am very scripted. So this is the first time that people really get to see my private life and everything that happened after Miss Universe — more of my personality,” Cortesi told the audience at the question-and-answer session that followed the screening.

“It’s not easy to see yourself there in a very vulnerable state. But it’s the first time that people see a different side of me,” she added.

The series, created by Daytime Emmy Award-winning producer Michael Carandang, traces her journey “from beauty queen to beauty mogul” as she runs and grows her cosmetics line Asul, navigates an increasingly public relationship with partner Jonathan Sterling, and lets the public see into a life she once kept fiercely private.

Almost by accident

The show itself, Cortesi said, began almost by accident.

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“We were thinking, why not do an unscripted reality show about me and what happened after Miss Universe,” she said. “We started filming everything. We never stopped, so it was very natural.”

The series also follows the most personal decision of her year: choosing, with Sterling, to start a family. Wanting to become a mom is something Cortesi never admitted until just recently, and the series follows what going for it actually took — the unfiltered road to getting pregnant, battling changes, and adapting to every challenge that came with it, all captured as it unfolded.

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“When I met Johnny, I felt like I wanted to settle down, and this was the person that I wanted to marry and the person I wanted to build a family with,” Cortesi said. “We were not even a year together when we wanted to have a baby. It felt right — and I’m pregnant now.”

Sterling, an entrepreneur and philanthropist who has generally kept his personal life private, said stepping in front of the cameras was a deliberate choice.

“I’m usually the person behind the camera — supporting, holding the fan, bringing the snacks, making sure she’s okay,” he said. “We planned to put out the docuseries to give the full picture, the real picture, the honest picture about our lives, because so many people are going to tell stories about us anyway that are not true. We would rather do it ourselves and show you our truth.”

Asked when the two knew they had fallen in love, Sterling pointed to a scene viewers will see this season: the couple dancing in the rain in Bali. “That’s the moment, and I think it was the same moment for both of us,” he said.

“But he said it first,” Cortesi added.

Friends on board

Joining them onscreen — and onstage at the launch — are two of the people who know Cortesi best. Benj, one of her closest friends, was by her side during her Miss Universe journey in New Orleans.

“Celeste is one of the strongest persons that I know. She’s one of those persons that is hard from the outside but very soft from the inside — and I’ve seen that vulnerability in her, which I feel is one of her strengths,” he said. “I told her, I don’t want to see you cry. If ever you will cry again, the next time you cry, it’s out of happiness.”

Marky, the first person Cortesi hired for Asul and part of the company from the very beginning, offered a different view: Cortesi as a boss.

“Honestly, there are bad times, just like in any other workplace. But you’re all deciding or discussing things for the same goals,” Marky said. “She knows what she wants. For the brand, she’s a visionary, she’s creative, she’s generous.”

For Carandang, who first worked with Cortesi during her Miss Universe Philippines campaign, the series was built around how she carries loss.

“If she would have made it to the Top 16, maybe we wouldn’t be here today watching this. She had to pivot, and she had to figure out what was next — and what was next led her to this,” Carandang said, before borrowing a line from Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray: “You are never denied, you are only redirected.”

Eight episodes

Asked what audiences should watch for this season, Carandang was quick to note the premiere is only the beginning.

“That’s only episode one — we have eight episodes. What was happening in the press, we also had to talk about it in the show,” he said. “It’s going to be a ride for everyone.”

“I’m most excited about the humanization factor,” Sterling said. “You’ll see luxury hotels, private jets — but that’s not the focus of the show. The focus is who Celeste is as a person, and the things that she goes through that are so relatable to everybody in the world.”

“I’m actually excited myself, because I don’t know how it’s going to end. We keep on rolling almost every day,” Benj said, while Marky hoped viewers take one thing home: “I hope that everyone will extend a bit more kindness to everyone — and that they’ll be able to learn to be kind to themselves.”

As the launch closed, Cortesi was asked whether the series is her reintroduction to a public that has often misjudged her. Her answer suggested she is done looking back.

“I reached a point where I feel at peace with what happened. I really gav

Background information

“Celeste Unscripted” premiered Aug, 8 and airs every Saturday at 10:30 p.m. on free TV — with a worldwide premiere on Aug. 15.

Goat Creative Studios is a Manila-based studio developing and owning premium unscripted entertainment — reality series, documentaries, and formats built to travel — rooted in authentic, character-driven Filipino storytelling.

Series creator Michael Carandang is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning producer whose credits include “The Tyra Banks Show” and “America’s Next Top Model,” the Philippines’ first fashion documentary series “Making MEGA,” and the PMPC Star Award-winning “It Takes GUTZ to Be a Gutierrez,” which aired in 20 countries. /atm