Beauty queen Janelle Lewis confirms she’s dating Kiko Estrada

MANILA, Philippines – After weeks of speculation, Miss World Philippines 2021 2nd Princess Janelle Lewis has finally confirmed that she’s dating actor Kiko Estrada. 

During the press conference for her movie Taklas on Tuesday, February 1, the beauty-queen-turned-actress was asked about her and Kiko’s real status. “We’re dating. Me and Kiko are dating,” she replied. 

She also clarified that she only got involved with the actor after Kiko ended her short romance with actress Heaven Peralejo. “Just to set things straight, I came into the picture a few months after,” Janelle said. 

Kiko and Heaven confirmed their relationship in August 2021, six months after the two were first rumored to be dating, after speculations that Kiko and ex-girlfriend Devon Seron, who went public with their relationship in 2019, had broken up because of Heaven’s alleged involvement. 

Kiko had denied the cheating and “overlapping” allegations involving his relationships with Heaven and Devon in an August 25 interview. But in September, breakup rumors between the actor and Heaven started circulating when fans noticed that Kiko deleted photos from his Instagram account and had stopped following the actress. In October, Heaven confirmed that she’s single, and has already moved on. 

Relationship rumors between Kiko, 26, and Janelle, 20, started in early January 2022 when the beauty queen shared videos with the actor on her TikTok account. 

In a separate interview by GenE! NewsPH, Janelle shared more details about her romance with Kiko. “I met him a few months after their breakup,” she said. 

Janelle also revealed that Kiko was invited to judge the Miss World Philippines 2021 pageant, but she asked him to not accept the offer since they were already getting to know each other at that time. Janelle was one of the candidates and she was named 2nd Princess after Ganiel Krishnan relinquished her title. 

After her pageant stint, Janelle said that they started to see each other more and got even closer. “Other people may interpret him as mayabang or pilosopo (arrogant). But when you actually get to know him, [he’s] super soft-hearted,” she said. 

She added that she already met his family, “It’s honestly nice to have someone who would care for you so much…. It was nice getting to know his family and his mom is also very welcoming.”

Before joining beauty pageants, Janelle also joined GMA’s talent competition show StarStruck in 2019. – Rappler.com