It's a girl for Jaime Teo
By Ilsa Chan, channelnewsasia.com | Posted: 12 November 2009 1312 hrs

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SINGAPORE : Just eight months after making her return to showbiz, actress-host Jaime Teo is set to take another break.

Teo, who is four months’ pregnant, told Channelnewsasia.com that she and husband, 987FM deejay Daniel Ong, are expecting a girl in April and that she could take a year off to be a stay-at-home mom.

“It will depend on how I cope when the child comes. I have friends who have post-natal blues, and I have friends who breeze through it, so it all depends.

“I don’t mind not working at all. If there’s something fun to do, I will come out to do it for a while, but I won’t think of wanting a career. It’s not like I want to be famous, it has never been on the cards for me, I just want to go enjoy myself.”

But one thing she can foresee she will not enjoy is sharing the same birthday as her daughter - April 17.

“I just hope the baby doesn’t come on my birthday. I don’t want it to be the same day because after that, you will be a non entity, every birthday is like the baby’s birthday,” said the former beauty queen.

Though the couple only found out the gender of the baby on Thursday, Teo’s maternal instincts were spot on. She revealed in an earlier interview that the parents-to-be “have a feeling that it is going to be a girl”.

Like most expectant mothers, Teo has had her fair share of morning sickness and cravings. Gone are her staples of fish and vegetables and in their place are fast foods.

Despite her diet of fast food, Teo, who is at the half-way mark of her pregnancy, has gained just two kilograms, a far cry from her doctor’s recommended 15.

“I have another five, six months to put on another ten kilograms. Eeks! The thought of it is so scary,” she said with a shudder. “But I think the body needs to pad up for birth, so it will happen, let’s not worry about it.”


The kan cheong mama

The couple, who have been married for two years, have always believed in letting nature take its course and are fine with not having any children.

Teo, 32, said though she has been told that she has “a natural knack for kids”, she prefers to play with other people’s dogs and kids “because when they cry or make a mess, you can just return them”.

However, after a talk with her gynaecologist earlier this year, the couple decided to try for a kid. “If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But it happened quite quickly and next year we are going to be parents!” said Teo.

So what kind of mother will she be?

“As much as I hate to admit it, I think I will be pretty kan cheong [Cantonese for uptight],” Teo replied sheepishly.

“I will be scared that the baby falls down, scared that the teat is dirty, everything that drops on the floor [I] must pick up and wash, whereas Dan will go, ‘Never mind, clean a bit can already.’ I already do see that I am going to be very worried about that. He’s all for building immunity but I prefer to keep it clean.”


Return to the small screen

Though Teo has pretty much stopped working and returned to being a lady of leisure, viewers can still catch her on the small screen when new Mandarin sitcom “Mr & Mrs Kok” airs on November 26 on Channel 8. This is her third stint on TV since returning from her two-year break.

In the series, Teo plays Pichu Choo, the “not so bright” secretary of crime-busting couple Mr and Mrs Kok, played by comedian Mark Lee and theatre veteran Tan Kheng Hua.

“Memorising lines for this show was quite a b**** because she [Choo] has so many lines,” whispered Teo. “And because I filmed like 14 scenes a day, whenever I go on a shoot, I have to learn lines for every scene and she talks a lot!”

She added, “Sometimes when I see Kheng Hua trying so hard to memorise her lines, I tell myself that I can do it too. But there are times when I feel pressured to perform because she gets her lines right and I’m afraid I will screw mine up.”

Thankfully, Choo has a slight speech defect - she is short-tongued - which Teo used to her advantage.

“If I forget my lines, I just [mumbles] … because she talks like that. Some times when I don’t say a word correctly, they just let it go because I am supposed to be short-tongued. And half the time it was like that,” said the actress.

- CNA/il