After some time away from the limelight, one of Manila’s most beloved It Girls is finally back. Georgina Wilson-Burnand opens up about the highly eventful year she’s had and, together with husband Arthur Burnand, shares the joys of married life and parenthood.
"There was a time when I said that the day I married Arthur was the best day of my life,” says a beaming Georgina Wilson-Burnand. “And it really was—until the day Archie was born. Now, it’s the second best.” Not so long ago, the ideas of marriage and motherhood were the farthest things on her mind. A car eer woman through and through (she had juggled university with work), Georgina had always thought they would come at a time in her life when she did not have so much on her plate and would be truly ready. Fate, however, had its own designs, and Georgina found herself caught in what she could only describe as a whirlwind.
This is not Georgina’s first rodeo with Philippine Tatler. The five-time cover girl first appeared on the cover as a fresh new face in March 2005. Until now, her most recent appearance was on the special three-cover July 2011 Glam Issue, an honour she shared with fellow it girls Celine Lopez and Heart Evangelista.
Born in Wichita, Kansas, Georgina spent most of her childhood years on a farm 30 minutes away from a small town in North Yorkshire, England. There, she would help tend to the animals and teach her younger siblings Jessica and Samuel how to make perfume from flowers. Her family moved to the Philippines when she was 11, and she was enrolled at the exclusive all-girl private school Assumption College as a fourth grader. “I was tall for my age and chubby; I stuck out like a sore thumb,” she recalls. “The other kids teased me about my English accent, so I worked quickly to lose it. At the time, I was putting a lot of effort into fitting in because I was so mindful that I was different.”
She grew up to be a woman of both beauty and brains (she has a bachelor’s degree in commerce with double majors in finance and accounting from the University of Sydney) with a strong work ethic. Other than being a model, VJ, and television show host, Wilson is also a capable businesswoman, helming the marketing end of the ever-popular eyewear brand Sunnies Studios Inc. Along with her cousins and close friends, she is her alded as one of Manila’s most sought-after it girls. Georgina pays the label little heed, but acknowledges the pressure that comes with it. Of this, she says, “As a public figure who is active on social media, there are expectations of us to not make mistakes and to be perfect—which isn’t always the case. I try not t o think too hard about things and make sure that I am myself and that I stick to my morals and values.”