New Derek-tion
Still at the peak of his career and endorsement offers, Derek Ramsay, 48, is quitting showbiz.
For now or for good?
A loving father to Austin and Lily, a very attached “Papa D” to his wife Ellen’s son Elias, a smitten husband to Ellen and devoted son to Derek Sr. and Medy Ramsay, Derek says he seems to have it all right now.
“And that’s why I turned my back on my career,” Derek told me in an interview in his multi-story home in Alabang, now filled with the happy squeals of eight-month-old Lily and the music from Elias’ piano.
Movies, none in the works?
“I’ve been offered a lot and I just can’t get myself to. I won’t be able to give my 100 percent, which is what my dad’s teaching is. I will not be able to give my 100 percent.”
Television?
“TV, definitely no.”
Why, oh why?
“I don’t want to miss out on these years,” he says cuddling his Lily, whom he calls his “Lilyput.” “And my parents are in their twilight years, I want to spend as much time with them.”
“This is the best feeling in the world,” he shares, kissing Lily’s cheek and cooing to her. “Every time you wake up and this is what makes you salubong.”
For now, Derek is concentrating on his business ventures, among them the golf line, “BooYaa,” and his build-and-sell business with his father.
Otherwise, he and Ellen love to just hang out in their home, “our own little world.” Derek confesses he became a plantito during the pandemic and he proudly shows us the vertical garden he tends to behind a pond teeming with fat koi.
‘Pinky promise’
Four years ago, Derek was “in a place where I embraced the fact that I might never get married.”
“I was in and out of relationships, but long relationships. I could never pull the trigger to bring it to that level of marriage because of doubt. Nothing against whoever my partner was.”
And then came Ellen, who at first he was not keen on meeting. But as fate had it, they found themselves on the curb of the restaurant they had just visited, and he offered her a ride home after learning she lived five houses down his house. It wasn’t love at first sight. But…he offered her the front seat of his car and let his nephew and his girlfriend sit at the back. Ellen asked her PA to find another way home.
“The conversation there was what got me thinking, ‘Hey, this girl’s interesting. There’s something here.’ And then we just started hanging out. When people saw that we were hanging out, people thought we were just going to be friends with benefits. These two are probably ‘going at it every day’.
“The truth is, nothing was happening between the two of us,” he swears.
They weren’t even holding hands—“Just our pinkies.”
“And that’s when it was like, ‘this thing is just so different’. It’s like…I was now looking for doubt because I was scared. I didn’t want to jump into another relationship. We both even talked about marriage, and Ellen said, ‘I’m content with just having Elias.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, me too. I’m content with Austin and my family. I don’t think there’s any need for marriage.’ Then one day I told her, ‘I’m going to marry you’.”
And he did, on Nov. 11, 2021 in a mountain resort in Bagac, Bataan.
“When I met Ellen, I could just be myself. Like completely 100 percent. We didn’t start a relationship by putting our best foot forward, which is how most relationships are, right? She gave me her dark side right from the get-go. I showed her my dark side from the get-go…for us to be able to embrace that naturally.”
‘Liana Del’
And baby Liana Del Adarna Ramsay completed their blended family.
“I wanted a boy in the beginning. But slowly, it transitioned to me wanting a daughter. But that’s because of my mom going to Manaoag every month praying for a granddaughter. I was like, I better accept this. There’s no way I’m going to beat the Man upstairs, without my mom’s panata and everyone praying. So I knew it was going to be a girl. And I got super excited.”
When he first saw his daughter’s face in the delivery room, he was in tears. It was better than fainting.
“I had a nurse dedicated to me. I thought I was going to faint. I stayed as far as away from the delivery channel. I could not get the strength to go to that side of the room. I was beside Ellen, telling her to breathe, telling her to push. She only pushed three or four times.”
He only had eyes for his daughter.
“I just couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. Everywhere she went, buntot lang ako. Of course, I was also worried about my wife going through all that pain. Every vein, I think, in her body was just bursting out.”
Then the doctor takes one look at the baby and tells Ellen, “Sorry Ellen, she’s all Derek.”
“So Ellen calls her ‘Dereka’,” laughs Derek.
“My mom says the same,” says the proud Papa D. “So she showed me the pictures of when I was a baby. But I see Ellen also.” Looking at Lily’s big round eyes, he tells her, “I want you to look like your Mama. Your Mama’s beautiful.”
They named Lily after Elias’ classmate Liana. “Del” is the nickname for Derek in the United Kingdom. Derek calls her “Lilyput,” perhaps from Gulliver’s Travels’ Liliput?
Derek says he is the disciplinarian in the family. “My rule is if Lily wants to enter this industry (show business), she can only do it after she graduates from college. Because she’ll be able to handle her career better if she does.”
How did they prepare Elias, who Derek says is “very attached” to Ellen, for his baby sister?
“So we just told him, ‘Look, the room is going to be your room, and you’re going to be the king of that room, and your sister is going to stay with you, so you have to protect her. Nothing to worry about, actually.”
With the new baby, how do Ellen and Derek Ramsay keep their romance burning?
“So we’ve got lots of trips planned. The kids are always involved. Even in our (second) honeymoon, I want them to be there,” says Papa D.
Has having Lily enhanced their marriage?
“I have that feeling with Elias also. I’m just so attached to him. Lily is icing on the cake,” says Derek.
Ellen said hello to us during the interview but left Derek to the klieg lights. I asked him what he would say to her if she came down to join him, and he said, “Thank you for giving me this life. It’s better than I ever imagined.”
