What Happened to Rustom Padilla?

I remember that I was still young when Rustom Padilla, brother to action stars Robin and Royette Padilla, started in show business. He used to work as a flight attendant for Philippine Airlines. My mother remembered him during one of his flights and my mom says that he is really handsome.

Then he married former teen sweetheart Carmina Villaroel and they have stayed together for several years, although they didn't have children. From the onset, who would have thought that Rustom was ...or is ...gay. It was not actually clear if that was the reason why he and Carmina separated, with Carmina eventually marrying another hunk, Zoren Legaspi. But there were rumors then that indeed Rustom was gay.

The big news came when during one emotional moment with Keana in the Pinoy Big Brother house celebrity edition, Rustom confessed that indeed he is gay and he then narrated how he came to know that he was different from his rather macho brothers.

He tried to live the normal life, like a real man, got married to a pretty girl, but I guess, it was not enough to hide the things that were boiling inside of him.

But this year was the worst. He came home from a short stay in New York, and when he came back, Rustom became an entirely different person. He became Bebe Gandanghari--he dressed differently, talked differently, moved differently. When asked where Rustom is, he said Rustom is dead. I dunno what happened in between or who he met while he was in America, but somehow, Rustom transformed, like a butterfly from a caterpillar. That is how drastic his change became.

He is now a fashion model, fulfilling probably his childhood dreams of becoming a woman. He denies getting a sex change procedure.

Anyway, I could not imagine being in Carmina's shoes. The guys I had loved and married and had sex with in the past turned out to be literally a closet queen.

I don't want to make judgments on Rustom, it is not my call. I just wonder, has neurosis really set in? Why the sudden change?

Anyway, Rustom seems very happy with his new self. And people are just accepting him. We are just having difficulty explaining the fact to our 3-year-old nephew.