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The revelation of Max Eigenmann that the father of Ellie is none other than Jake Ejercito has stirred various reactions from netizens. Initially, reactions delved on "what's new?" and moved on to wanting Andi Eigenmann and Ejercito to apologize to Albie Casino.
Back in 2011, Casino was among the young actors ABS-CBN was building up. At that time, he was already the screen partner of Kathryn Bernardo in the remake of Mara Clara. The audience loved their team up and Casino seemed destined for a bigger career. However, the public also knew that romance between Bernardo and Casino was not possible because Andi Eigenmann was in the picture.
Eigenmann was already being noticed for her acting talent and trusted with projects where she was the lead actress. Coming from a showbiz family, much was expected from Eigenmann to prove that she was the worthy heir of her parents, Mark Gil and Jacklyn Jose. Her road to stardom seems promising.
Then, one day, showbiz land was awakened with the admission that Eigenmann was pregnant. The quest to identify the father came next and fingers pointed out to Casino, who was her boyfriend at that time. Nonetheless, the relationships of Eigenmann at that time were confusing. One claim is that when Eigenmann and Casino broke up, Ejercito came into the picture and became the boyfriend of Eigenmann. As Ejercito was studying abroad, he had to leave. With Ejercito far away, Eigenmann allegedly went back to Casino even though she and Ejercito had no formal breakup. Then, news of her pregnancy rocked the industry.
When Casino was pointed at as the father, the actor immediately denied the claim. Casino was around 18 years old at that time and was being touted as the next big talent of his network. However, the doubts coming from his family and reaction to the controversy affected his image. Slowly, his projects were no longer materializing. Worse, Casino was allegedly even beaten up by celebrity sympathizers of Eigenmann. Then, Casino disappeared from the network, and resurfaced in another when the issue seemed to be dying down.
While Casino opted to stay away from Eigenmann, Ejercito chose to be with her despite not being identified as the father. This decision of Ejercito to standby Eigenmann resulted in straining the relationship between his mother, Laarni Enriquez, and Eigenmann's mother. Jose was caught on video talking about how the Ejercitos might not want her daughter for the unico hijo because Eigenmann was a single mom. Enriquez was quoted to deny such belief of Jose.
As Ellie was growing up, netizens were surprised at how Ejercito would dote on the child. He would bring her to places and develop closeness. People questioned why he seemed to be close to the child, while Casino had not even seen Ellie. While photos showed Ejercito and Ellie in happy moments, the opposite could be said when it came to Eigenmann and Ejercito in their social media accounts. A war was always happening in their exchanges and their followers realized that Ejercito and Eigenmann have too many disagreements.
Last year, Casino resurfaced and was back with ABS-CBN. In one of his interviews, he hinted that he was indeed not the father of Ellie, but he was not in a position to say anything more. Moreover, he opted to remain quiet so as not to affect the child.
A few days ago, Eigenmann's half-sister, Max, finally revealed and confirmed that Ejercito was indeed the father of Ellie. In her interview at Good Times with Mo Twister, Max revealed that Ejercito took the paternity test. Casino actually offered to take a paternity test, but this offer was turned down by the family of Eigenmann. This revelation sparked a snowball of reactions. Netizens immediately criticized Eigenmann for not telling the truth. Even Ejercito was not spared. Netizens demanded that both Eigenmann and Ejercito should apologize to Casino. After all, the pregnancy issue ruined the career of Casino. However, looking at the bright side, other netizens claim that had Casino remained visible, Daniel Padilla would have never been partnered with Kathryn Bernardo, and KathNiel would have never happened.
Now that the cat is out of the bad, so to speak, the public is waiting for a statement coming from Eigenmann herself. As the mother, she is the only other person who can refute or verify the claim made by Max. Further, the question of why she hid the identity of the father is another point to ponder. Another one is why she played along that Casino is indeed the father. At the moment, only Casino and his family as well as some family members of Eigenmann have posted on social media their reactions.
