Luis Manzano, known as Lucky by the entire Philippines, just turned 43 and shares a lot of wisdom and jokes with all of us.

“At 43, I am loving the new roles given to me by faith, destiny, Jessy, and Peanut. I love you anak. I love you How-How.” 

Peanut is Lucky’s one-year-old daughter, and How-How is Jessy Mendiola-Manzano, Lucky’s beautiful wife. How-How is their term of endearment, “It’s with an o and not an a. How like a question," says the television host and product endorser. They say there’s a thin line between genius and insanity. I want to think that my friend Luis is there. Here’s how this interview went: 

Gossip Girl: What took you so long to marry Jessy?

Lucky: “It’s really not an easy jump, but then I realized that settling down with a significant other is not necessarily giving up a lot of  your dreams, it’s adding an inspiration to achieve those  dreams. Lupet di ba? But after dating for five years, add the three years married, she is still laughing at my jokes. I hope she’s not faking it. At the end of the day a relationship will always evolve. You won’t be as good looking, you won’t be as active..etc. But once you have that chemistry, once you have that companionship that you can share jokes, laugh at silly things, laugh and make fun at each other, para sa akin that goes a long long way. And when that chemistry lasted for a long long time, I knew she was one.” 

Gossip Girl: How is Ate Vi as a grandmother?

Lucky: "On her first visit, Jessy gave Peanut for her to hold. My mom was shaking, so afraid … and it dawned on me, my mother does not know how to hold a baby! So many questions popped in my head, Is she really my mother? If not, who is? Who am I? Hahahah! Seriously, there’s something so pure with grandparent love. I was watching a movie and Russel Crow said, 'The closest to God’s love is a mother’s love.' Pero para sa akin a grandparent’s love is a whole new league. Maybe because they don’t have any more pressure in raising the child. For them it’s all love. Discipline is only an afterthought. So much love to give without any pressure.”

Gossip Girl: You have 14 million followers across all social media – four million on Instagram, another four million on Facebook, three million on YouTube and another three million on TikTok. I’m sure you have admins for this. And how do you handle the bashers? 

Lucky: "Yes I do have admins but the funny reposts from the net, 99.9 percent (wow, bacteria!), is from me! Traffic sa Pinas eh. I love scouring the Internet. With the bashers, kapag sumasagot sa basher, ako talaga yun. It’s really for fun and games. Hindi ko pine-personal. One time I posted - roast me. Kasi yan ang panahon ko makipag kulitan. Sige nga sabihin ninyo kung ano gusto ninyo.. but I set ground rules, nothing to do family. Hindi ako sasagot ‘pag alam kong troll. It’s useless. Pero sasagot ako pag nadaanan ko na lahat ng pictures mo. One time a guy roasted me for my chin which is the favorite roast topic of all my followers. After running through his posts, I had my perfect clap back, ‘eh yung ilong mo parang split type na aircon. Makopa ba ‘yan? Then he answers with a ‘hahahaha’ ! So basically it’s a way to connect with my followers. I call it kulitan time. What we both do Miss G, makulit tayo, mapang-asar tayo, ang pangit naman kung pikon ka. It’s really fun and games for me.”

Gossip Girl: How excited are you with the collaborations of different networks now? 

Lucky: "Very! The fact that ABS-CBN has a collaboration with GMA with 'It’s Showtime.' I think for people in the industry like us who have spent a good amount of time in the industry, never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that something as big as this will ever happen. The fact that ABS-CBN and GMA collaborated for something as crucial and as vital as a noontime show. Never in your wildest dreams because you know how intense it gets. The landscape has changed so much. I wanna work in this industry now more than ever because the exclusivity has opened. How great it would be if artists could now jump from one station to the other. It just shows kung gaano talaga kaliit ang industriya natin. Now that there is a cross-over from GMA to TV5 and now with AllTV and ABS-CBN. There is now a change of landscape and I’m happy now that I can do this. I am happy not only for myself but for the people behind the camera because they work twice as much as we do.”

Gossip Girl: With this new landscape, any upcoming projects we should lookout for? 

Lucky: "I’m gonna explore sexy movies in Vivamax. Hahaha!" 

And that’s Lucky for you.