Ruffa Gutierrez admits Las Vegas wedding

Controversial actress Ruffa Gutierrez was still a few weeks away before she officially assumes co-hosting duties for ABS-CBN's showbiz talk show, The Buzz. But being the subject of a major issue herself, Ruffa had no choice but to subject herself on the hot seat to answer, perhaps for the last time, all the controversies that continue to hound her ill-fated marriage with Turkish businessman Yilmaz Bektas. Throughout the interview, there was a considerable hush inside the studio, a tense atmosphere that breathed anxious anticipation. When The Buzz co-host Boy Abunda finally came to dwell on Ruffa's rumored Las Vegas wedding on January 18, 1999, to a certain Richard Daloia, the silence became even more still. "When you're young, you do a lot of crazy things. You're impulsive... you're in love," repeating the same line she gave out to Startalk's Butch Francisco during a phone-patch interview the day before, June 9. So, was there really a wedding that happened? Abunda frankly probed. "Naging boyfriend ko siya and, yeah, nagpakasal kami sa Vegas. So what? People do that all the time," she revealed before a stunned audience. Ruffa also added that Richard was the one Annabelle referred to as PG (patay-gutom). Ruffa's mother was not in favor of their relationship. Ruffa however disowned the picture of a Richard Daloia that appeared on the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The picture was reportedly sent by a reader whose daughter accessed Daloia's myspace.com account. The picture reveals a tuxedo-wearing man who's currently 47 years old as indicated in his profile. Ruffa insisted that she and the Richard she married were still both in their 20s when they tied the knot, she was 23 and he was 20. "You got the name right, pero hindi siya ‘yon," she told Inquirer. "Lahat ng naging boyfriends ko, they're all young and handsome." Her parents, as what Ruffa said, were clueless about the wedding, so she was basically on her own when she filed for divorce—that was year 2000. She admitted that one of her purposes on why she went back to Las Vegas last month was to do the necessary follow-up. "Alam ni Yilmaz lahat. I told him everything the first month we met. But this guy [Richard] was not the reason kung ba't kami naghiwalay. Naghiwalay kami dahil binubugbog niya ko and that's very clear." - Philippine Entertainment Portal