Lucy Torres met her long-time crush, Richard Gomez, in 1993 when they were shooting the first Lux shampoo commercial. In the course of their five-year meetings
on the set, Richard would call Lucy everyday for two weeks straight then suddenly disappear.
When Lux wrapped up the final commercial in May 1997, Richard’s habit changed. This time, he would call her everyday for two weeks, and not stop. Since then, there was no day when Richard and Lucy wouldn’t talk—he even visited Lucy at her house in Ormoc.
He asked, “How do you get to Ormoc?” Lucy related to Marie Claire (February 2009 issue) about Richard’s plan to visit her. When Lucy gave him directions, Richard surprised her by saying that he would visit her the next day. Lucy at first didn’t take him seriously, but when he called back to say that he had already booked a flight, Lucy broke the news to her family that Richard was coming over.
The very next day, Richard arrived and, in Lucy’s words, “charmed my dad.”
All that happened in September 1997. Since then, there was no day that they didn’t talk. Finally, in December of that year, Richard once again visited and there, he proposed.
Explaining this, she narrates how Richard proposed on the eve of her 23rd birthday. They were seated with friends. They were all tipsy.
“He asked me, ‘Are you happy?’ I said, ‘I’m happy the way we are now.’ Then he said, ‘Will you be the mother of my children?’ Then he asked, ‘Will you be my wife?’ Afterwards, he said, ‘Will you marry me?’”
With that, Richard presented Lucy with a ring inspired by the one Princess Diana Spencer received from Prince Charles. It was an oval blue sapphire engagement ring surrounded by 14 small diamonds in an elegant cluster setting.
If he were conventional, Lucy explains later, it would be a dinner date with the ring in the cake or there would be flowers and serenade. “But come to think of it, I would not have it any other way. I’m glad it happened that way.”
Four months after, in April 28, 1998, the couple married at Lucy’s hometown in Ormoc City.