‘Never kaming kinasal’: Alden Richards debunks rumors of relationship, ‘love child’ with Maine Mendoza

MANILA, Philippines – Alden Richards once again reiterated that he and former onscreen partner Maine Mendoza have never been married, nor do they share a child. 

During the Wednesday, January 3 vlog of Toni Talks, the actor was asked about how he deals with the rumors that hound his nearly decade-long career. Most notably, some die-hard fans claim he and Mendoza have tied the knot and share a child together. 

“Meron silang storytelling (They have their own way of storytelling),” he said.

AlDub, Richards and Mendoza’s tandem, gained popularity in 2015. Although the love team split up in 2018 and Mendoza had already married actor and Quezon City 1st District representative Arjo Atayde in July 2023, some AlDub fans are still claiming that Richards and Mendoza are just keeping their relationship away from the public eye. 

“All along, akala ko by the time na Maine and Arjo became public and they got married eventually (mawawala na ang rumors) pero nandyan pa rin. I already said my piece about this. It’s not true. Wala pong katotohanan lahat ‘yon. Wala po kaming anak. We never got married. We don’t have a love child,” he said.

(All along, I thought that by the time Maine and Arjo went public with their relationship and eventually got married, the rumors would stop. But they’re still there. I already said my piece about this. It’s not true. There’s no truth to any of these rumors. We don’t have a child. We never got married. We don’t have a love child.” 

While this isn’t the first time for Richards to address these rumors — he previously debunked the same speculations on a January 2023 episode of Fast Talk With Boy Abunda and a May 2023 interview with Ogie Diaz — the actor shared that he’s at the point where he’s starting to consider how his fans are feeling instead.

“Masaya po sila doon eh. Tatanggalin ko pa ba? Ira-rub ko pa ba sa mga buhay na, ‘Wala nga, ‘wag kayong makulit (They find happiness there. Should I take that away from them? Should I keep on telling them to stop insisting because it’s not true)?” he said. “I always support [the] happiness of people.” 

On her end, Mendoza had said in a November 2022 interview that she had personally messaged these fans to tell them that the rumors were not true. The actress said that she’d also grown tired of explaining herself, as many fans still don’t believe her or Richards no matter how much they deny the claims. 

“Alam ko na by telling the truth, masasaktan sila. Pero by leading them on, mas masasaktan din sila,” she said (I know that by telling the truth, they’ll get hurt. But if I keep leading them on, they’ll get hurt even more). – Rappler.com