Before her 28th birthday last Friday, she wished for two things — more wisdom and to skip any mention of her film director boyfriend Paul Soriano.

The last request was certainly an odd one, especially with rumours about a possible split, but showbiz celebrity Toni Gonzaga was quick to explain.

"Let’s not discuss Paul… Don’t discuss him because it’s Sam [Milby] that I’m going to be with in Dubai," Gonzaga tells me in a telephone interview ahead of her first Dubai gig with Milby and her sister Alex on January 27.

Rumours of a split hit a high after Gonzaga’s family and close friends in showbusiness shared their wishes in a video recording for her pre-birthday bash on the talk show The Buzz. Soriano was not included in the video. "There’s really nothing more he can say on air that he can’t say to me in person," Gonzaga said in dismissal then.

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