Ex-MTV Star Reveals New Engagement 6 Years After Her Marriage Ended in Heartbreak

Donita Rose, a former MTV Asia VJ, is engaged to Felson Palad, Jr., she announced on May 29. Rose is also an actress and a corporate chef for Island Pacific, a Filipino supermarket chain based in the U.S. Her engagement comes six years after her “devastating” split from ex-husband Eric Villarama, with whom she shares a son.

Rose, 47, shared the news on Instagram, alongside a photo showing off her engagement ring. “Am now officially engaged,” she captioned the post. The picture was taken at a wedding in Franklin, Tennessee. “This engagement is all in God’s hands. We both pray He will bless our soon marriage,” Palad, a gospel singer and Christian leader, told Yahoo Philippines.

Palad later shared a photo from his proposal in Temecula, California. “I had never been so nervous in my life till the day I proposed. I love you [Rose],” Palad wrote. Rose is seen laughing in the picture, which prompted her to share a funny comment on the post. “I’m laughing right now thinking about what happened,” Rose wrote. “You didn’t realize that when you took me by the hand to that spot, you were kinda pulling me. I’ve secretly been telling my friends that in hindsight, I could [tell] you were so stressed out.”

Rose and Palad met in January and she took their relationship public in April. She told Bandera their Christian faith is important to both of them. “Lord, this is what I want. I am so happy that the Lord answered all of my prayers through [Palad],” she told the outlet.

This will be Rose’s second marriage. She was previously married to Villarama from 2003 until they separated in 2016. During an appearance on Mo Twister’s podcast in 2016, Rose described the split as “devastating” and “painful,” reports ABC-CBN News. “I will say that there have been a lot of times I said, ‘Why me?’ I felt like I’ve done everything that I could,” Rose said. “Why does this still has to happen to me? The hardest part is when you have kids, in this case, my son.”

“But one thing that I take comfort in knowing is that sometimes God has to work through adversity. We don’t really learn a lot through the good times. It’s really through the trials and difficulties you really start seeking answers, really turning to God,” Rose said in 2016. “When you feel that things are hopeless. It’s through adversity that we can become better people. I feel that after everything that has happened to me, believe it or not, I actually feel that I’ve become a better person out of it.”

Rose was born Donita Rose Ramos Cavett in Utah. She moved to the Philippines when she was 5. She started her acting career in the Philippines and moved to Singapore to work for MTV Asia in 1997. Rose also hosted shows for broadcasters GMA Network and ABS-CBN. In April 2021, the Island Pacific supermarket chain hired Rose as a corporate research and development chef.