Celeste Cortesi says she wants to ‘protect’ her new relationship

Celeste Cortesi wants to keep her current relationship more private.

The former Miss Universe Philippines representative said during her contract signing with Viva last Wednesday that she is "very very happy" with her new Spanish boyfriend Christian Balic and that she wants to "protect" it from the public.

"I am very very happy. We have been together for five, six months but I have been hiding. I really want to protect this relationship right now. I don't want people to have a piece of it," she said.

The Filipina-Italian beauty queen felt that her past relationship was "very public" and that "many people had a lot of opinions."

"I don’t want people to have a piece of it. When the relationship is very public, people have more opportunities to take it away from you. People would have lots of opinions. I feel my relationship has to be private. At the end of the day, it is me with that person," she added.

Celeste explained that she's not being secretive about her relationship, however, she prefers to keep it personal while still sharing occasional updates with her fans.

"I also like to give updates to fans or people following me. But as much as possible, I will keep this very private. There are always boundaries and limitations when it comes to that," she explained.

Cortesi clarified that keeping her relationship private is different from making it a secret. According to her, she will still share some moments with her followers, as she deeply values her connection with them.

Celeste also said that at that time, she "wasn’t even looking for someone new," but Christian came along, and "it changed everything."

"I just wanted to focus on the business, my showbiz career," she said "So I wasn’t looking for anyone, really, but someone came along and it changed everything."

“So now, I am very content and very happy.”

Celeste on Sept. 30 hard launched her new boyfriend Christian on social media, sharing a sweet photo of them during a romantic dinner. According to his Instagram bio, Christian is a Spanish expat and a PADI rescue diver currently based in the Philippines.  

Celeste was previously in a relationship with football player Mathew Custodio.

During an interview in 2022, she reacted to the rumors about a love life "curse" associated with the Miss Universe Philippines crown, saying that it would not "work on us."

“We know it’s never going to happen. The fact that I am Miss Universe Philippines will never get in the way of our relationship. It will just make it stronger. So I just want to say to these people…. it’s not going to work on us,” she said.