Supermoms and Alaska endorsers Gelli de Belen and Janice de Belen may be leading different lives, but when it comes to managing showbiz careers, raising kids and giving their families all the best things in the world, the sisters turn out to be more alike than different

Story C. Mendez Legaspi
Photography Lem Estiva
Styling Mervin Lazaro
Makeup Carmel Villongco for Benefits Style Salon
Hair Raymond Ko for Benefits Style Salon

From a controversial adolescence, Janice de Belen has settled into quiet contentment as an actress of acclaim, a host of note, and more proudly, as a doting mother.

As the confused Alicia on GMA Telebabad's Mars Ravelo's Darna, she plays Valentina's anguished mother. Janice gives viewers a chance to show that the one-time sweetheart of the nation can also be mean and menacing. However, during the successful run of the game-and-gabfest Sis, she allowed her loyal fans to interact with her natural self. No superficiality there.

At Sis and at home, Janice is the authority and the mother hen. With younger sister Gelli and bosom buddy Carmina Villaroel as co-anchors, she would bring to the morning show her analytical skills, wise-beyond-her- years quips and unassuming intelligence. These qualities, she hopes, her kids (Luigi by Aga Muhlach, and Inah, Moira, Kyla and Yuan by John Estrada) would also acquire one day.

Like herself, her kids are homebodies. "I sometimes let their friends do sleepovers at home. That way, I know they're safe while having fun at the same time.”

You'd think an actress of Gelli de Belen's caliber would be consumed with her acting trophy — staring, ogling, and obsessing over the very validation of her being a thespian. But, no, the quite-content actress left her Urian Best Actress trophy, which she won for her role in Maryo J. delos Reyes' The Secrets of Sarah Jane Salazar in 1995, at her mother's house.

"Kasama ng nanay ko. Siya tagapangalaga nung trophy,” the gregarious celebrity says of her Urian Award. "At the time I won the award, I still lived with my mom kasi.”

Recalling her landmark turn as the iconic Sarah Jane Salazar, Gelli had one lament. "I wasn't tapped to be a spokesperson for AIDS awareness but I would have been very willing to do it,” she says. Gelli declares she belongs to an RH-negative group and that she's a regular donor. She further stresses the importance of donating blood to the Red Cross, as she herself once needed blood transfusion due to excessive loss of blood during childbirth.

"I almost died giving birth to my second son because of blood loss. But because of the help of other members of my RHnegative group, I was saved.”

Read more about couple Cesar Montano and Sunshine Cruz in S Magazine, February 2010 issue.