A long history

Would you have guessed that this marriage was about a decade in the making? That's because Matteo apparently had had a crush on Sarah since 2009, a feeling that would never leave him! Call it fate or destiny knocking on his heart's doors but he must have felt even then that Sarah was going to be very special to him.

Photo Credit: @matteog

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Thank you, Billy

As the story goes, it was Billy Crawford who got this love story going when he obliged to Matteo's requests to introduce him to Sarah. The Mr. and Mrs. to be apparently first met in 2009 but it was only in 2010 when the friendship started to level up.

Photo Credit: @matteog

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Low-key

Not a lot is known about how their relationship progressed from "Hi-hello" to maybe dating to exclusively dating to officially together, but by 2013, a rumor about the couple celebrating their first anniversary in September made the rounds. Their fans have since kept their eyes peeled every September for even the slightest hint that they're celebrating yet another year of happy togetherness! (In the past, they've traveled to Cebu and to Europe to celebrate the special occasion).

Photo Credit: @matteog

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Confirmed!

Finally, after almost two years keeping her lips sealed, Sarah comes clean on Tonight With Boy Abunda and says, yup—she and Matteo are a couple!

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Family matters

More than once in 2015 and 2016, the couple opened up about their relationship and revealed that it isn't always rainbows and roses for them. For Sarah's family, in particular, it was difficult for them at first to accept that Sarah had chosen a partner and was in a serious relationship. Both Matteo and Sarah talked about having to defend their relationship, pray for people in their lives to accept them as a couple, and having to balance respecting Sarah's parents' wishes while maintaining autonomy over their choices.

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Ball date

In 2018, Sarah and Matteo were already a couple for five years but had only made it official to the public for two. Even then, they were almost never seen together in public and their social media feeds only featured the rare couple shot. But in September 2018, their fans adored their ABS-CBN red carpet couple arrival as they looked absolutely in love!

Photo Credit: Push

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Proposal

Here's where it gets interesting. In February 2019, people were freaking out about the rumor that Matteo had proposed to Sarah sometime over the holidays. There were zero news articles that could confirm this and neither Sarah nor Matteo were denying or confirming anything, but we held our breath.

Photo Credit: @ashmatt_love

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Settling down

Tito Boy Abunda really has a gift for squeezing out the juiciest tidbits from his guests on his show! Only in a July 2019 Tonight With Boy Abunda episode did Matteo mention that marriage was on the periphery for him and Sarah—the first time he ever talked about wanting to settle down with the pop star.

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Finally

And within that same year, in November 2019, Matteo and Sarah announced their engagement and people went berserk. Theories on when the proposal happened and how it rolled out sprouted in every corner of the Internet, but eventually it was made known that the couple had already been engaged for an entire year! Kudos to these two for being able to keep so many lovely details about their relationship private!

Photo Credit: @matteog

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"I do"

Matteo and Sarah got married via a secret civil wedding ceremony in a hotel in Bonifacio Global, Taguig on the evening of February 20. Now that we think about it, a 02-20-2020 wedding date was just too good to pass up. However, things turned bad when their special night reportedly ended up with Matteo punching the Geronimo family's bodyguard after the latter was said to have informed Sarah's mother, Divine, about this secret event.

Photo Credit: @matteog

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