espite a career in broadcast journalism spanning 20 years, top television Korina Sanchez , remains a mystery. She says she's actually a very private person, and calls herself a homebody.

“I really am, I really am!” she insists. “That's hard to believe, considering what I do, as my job. But even when I go abroad, I go first to the home stores. I love home magazines. I love places where you find accessories, paintings. I really like interior decoration.”

Three years ago, the Rated K: Handa Na Ba Kayo? Host went looking for a new place in Makati . “I thought that this was the best for me,” she says of the house she finally found. “Parang it called out to me. The partitions made sense. It's a good size. It worked well for me.”

Korina furnished the house herself, with the help of interior decorator Tito Villanueva.

“Much of the stuff is a collaboration between me and him,” she discloses. “I put in many things that I've collected all through the years I was working. I love good pieces of wood. So I really saved up from my earnings. If you see my house, you'll know where my earning went.”

Her current special friendship with Mar Roxas , former trade and industry secretary and now senator, could cause a change of address. But for now, that's not something over which Korina is losing sleep. What she finds hard to explain is people's fascination with their relationship.

“I don't know why. Maybe because for so long I've never been linked to anybody. Because I keep my relationship very private, and because of my

job being a news presenter, there was a lot of mystery about what I'm really all about. If I even have a heart, ‘di ba? Because you have to be really stiff and cold when you deliver

the news. Only when I did Morning Girls with Kris and Korina did people probably realize ‘A, tao rin pala siya!'

“And also when Mar became prominent because of all the campaigning. So people never really knew what he was all about, too. They just know him to be Mar Roxas, the congressman or secretary.

“So when these two people got together… Nagugulat nga ako, it's like people react to us like they were reacting to Bea Alonzo and to Piolo Pascual . But I'm not that young. I'm pushing forty, he's pushing fifty, can you imagine that!”

Although the relationship is now know throughout the country, Korina is still very careful when answering questions about it. “It's better to be cautious than presumptuous because at our age, we know very well that anything can happen.”

Korina reveals something more personal: “I want to have a child. That I think I should have soon. Whether marriage comes with that or not, I don't know but a child, yes. I think I want to have that really soon.”

One thing is certain, though. She hasn't gotten over the controversy that saw her being replaced as the lead newscaster of ABS-CBN's TV Patrol last November.

“I intend to get back to news casting. I don't know how that's gonna happen yet, for now. But I feel that I should not have lost that. I'm usually very pliant with that comes my way, but that didn't seem the right time to lose it.

“It's something to me that is unfinished, and I intend to finish that. I will leave on my own time. I will not lose it the way I did.”

With offers, of new shows coming her way, the well-known broadcaster makes a promise to her fans: “You'll see me again on primetime TV, very soon.

Korina's love for Chinese pieces entends to her other garden at the back of the house . Bonsai plants and orchids surround a Chinese statue, which is placed in the center.	While the rest of the house has a feminine tone, the den is different, “I try to compromise, so as you see, both a woman and a man can feel at home in it. This is where I entertain, like if I have male guests. My brothers, they also hang out here.” When she bought her house, Korina had to have almost every area repainted. “You should have seen this place when I first saw it, Oh, my God! You wouldn't recognize it. Lahat ng kuwarto, magulo. Siyempre, pinapinturahan ko lahat ‘yan.” The effort was obviously worth it, as this guest room. (LEFT & TOP RIGHT) shows, with its walls in cool sage green.
Atop at the wooden stairway, leading to Korina's room and the guest room, is an antique framed Chinese collar. A painting by National Artist H.R. Ocampo adorns the wall on the left side of the stairs.	This pretty bathroom was connecting doors to both the den and Korina's pink room.
White is the dominant color in Korina's home, both inside and out, “I always say it's because I live in a very magulo world, so when I go home, I want to be embraced by serenity, and I really capture the feel.”	Part of the reason Korina bought this house was the advice given by her astrologer. “She told me that it would be the best, according to my chart, that I were in the southwest facing northeast. And this is exactly the house!”

Read more of these on Yes! Magazine April 2005 Issue. - -