Basketball star Ricci Rivero and actress Andrea Brillantes are rumored to have ended their relationship after being together for over a year.
In recent days, social media has been buzzing with rumors of a breakup after Ricci appeared in the Instagram Story of former beauty queen turned politician Leren Mae Bautista, who currently serves as a municipal councilor in Los Baños, Laguna.
Ricci celebrated his birthday in Los Baños on May 25, accompanied by Leren, where they distributed food packs to local residents.
Leren later posted a picture of them together, wishing Ricci a happy birthday and expressing gratitude for his visit.
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Further fueling speculations, Andrea wasn't seen with him on that day, nor did she mention him in any posts.
Netizens swiftly began speculating that Ricci and Andrea had already parted ways, even accusing Ricci of being unfaithful.
On June 9, Ricci addressed the rumors in a tweet, acknowledging his "mistake" of not publicly revealing his relationship status.
Although he did not mention Andrea explicitly or confirm their alleged breakup, he shared his perspective.
"I own up to the mistake of not making my relationship status public because I felt there’s no need to add up to what were going through," he expressed.
"Please respect our decision to keep it to ourselves so that we can preserve whats left of our friendship," the former University of the Philippines basketball player added.
Ricci appealed to the public to refrain from creating their own narratives and involving other individuals in false accusations.
"I hope let’s stop creating your own versions and dragging other characters into these false accusations," he added.
"I am sorry for whatever disappoinments it may have caused you - for everyone’s peace of mind, please allow ourselves to heal and move on peacefully without hate and pain," Rivero ended.
Shortly after Ricci's tweet at 1:24 AM, Andrea's close friend Awra Briguela took to Twitter and seemingly aimed a dig at him through a series of tweets.
Andrea has not yet addressed the matter publicly.
Ricci and Andrea made their relationship official on April 9 last year when he publicly asked her to be her partner after a basketball game between the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons and the Far Eastern University Tamaraws.
