After ten years, Sarah Lahbati is officially making her TV comeback as a lead star once again, and it's coming real soon! She will star in teleserye, Lumuhod Ka Sa Lupa.
The timing for her comeback happened amid the controversies surrounding her relationship with her husband Richard Gutierrez. The actress-mother clarified that accepting the project was something she wanted for herself. Her decision to take another leap into acting after so long was rooted in self-love.
"I've been a very hands-on mom. I'm still a very hands-on mo so parang I wanted to do something for myself," she declared in an interview with MJ Marfori.
Sarah believes that it's a significant effort toward becoming a good mother to also take care of herself and prioritize self-love. "Napaka-important (ng self-love). If you wanna be able to take care of your kids the best way you can, you have to take care of yourself the best way you can also," Sarah noted.
READ: How To Practice Self-Love Even On Bad Days
Sarah shared that she took her time to find that balance between being the best mother and being the best woman for herself. "It's definitely a journey. That balance of being a mother and your own, your own self. But you work through things, it takes time. So parang other women figure it out easily, so it's different for everyone. As I grew older, parang natural naman siya, na-figure out ko," she said.
Sarah was a former talent of GMA Network. Her departure from the said network was smeared with various controversies. In a report from PEP.ph, GMA disclosed that Sarah took a one-month leave of absence in December 2012. However, the management went against it as Sarah had a lot of pending commitments at the time.
A part of GMA's statement sent to PEP.ph read, "Last December, Sarah Lahbati unilaterally decided to take a leave of absence of one (1) month from GMA Network, because she said she wanted to de-stress and unwind. Because her reasons were vague, they were not accepted by management."
Aside from reportedly wanting to "de-stress and unwind," Sarah who was a 19-year-old back then, also expressed her desire to go back to Switzerland to study. But in June 2014, Sarah along with her then-boyfriend Richard announced their first son, Zion's existence in public.
"We didn’t want to make Sarah’s pregnancy a tabloid circus. We get to share baby Zion to everyone with our own terms," Richard said through their family reality show, It Takes Gutz To Be A Gutierrez in 2014.
Around the end of November 2023, rumors about the couple having a rough patch in their marriage circulated. This was confirmed by Richard's mother Annabelle Rama when she divulged that her son is now staying in the Rama-Gutierrez family home. She also threw fiery comments regarding their situation without mentioning any names. Despite this, Sarah seems to be unbothered by her mother-in-law's comments. Instead, she is grateful and focused on what's to come for her relaunched acting career.
She is set to lead TV5's Lumuhod Ka Sa Lupa alongside Kiko Estrada and Sid Lucero.
"I’m okay and I’m excited. I’m feeling... honestly, I’m feeling grateful and I’m feeling blessed. Again, parang sunud-sunod 'yung blessings from God and I’m just excited to get to work," Sarah remarked.
