CATHY SHARON
BRAND NEW DAY
CATHY SHARON has the liberty to completely be herself, now that “everything’s out in the open”. The single mother of two reveals her new state of mind and exciting new business ventures to NINA HIDAYAT
CATHY SHARON HAS strong maternal instincts. When she encounters Publisher Ronald Liem, also our photographer for the day, on set, she quickly notices that he is a little under the weather. “Have you been taking vitamins? Have you been sleeping well? Have you been prescribed any medicine?” she asks attentively.
Being a mother is second nature to Cathy, who regards herself as a “very family person”. This is a departure for those who knew her as the carefree, extremely fun persona that was VJ Cathy in her MTV days back in the early 2000s. “My number one priorities are the kids. Every day, I take my son to school, and I make sure the two of them eat well and live in a comfortable home. It’s the domestic activities that I’ve grown to love,” says the mother of Jacob, 3, and Kayla, 1.
Cathy’s very calm demeanour is truly impressive, considering the tough year, to say the least, she has survived. She is currently undergoing a long-drawn-out divorce process. What makes it harder for her is the constant media scrutiny. On top of that, the negative comments people throw at her on social media. Does it ever bring her down?
“At one point, it did stress me out. But everything stressed me out at that point. But nowadays, I don’t let people bring negativity into my life. If someone talks to me and focus on the negatives, on the ‘oh poor Cathy’, I bring them back into positivity. I don’t want to be dragged into the negative side anymore,” she says.
Of the emotional journey she has gone through, Cathy says: “It’s been such a rollercoaster ride, but I’ve become a much more mature person. I’ve also grown spiritually. I now understand that in order for me to grow, I need to be spiritually stronger. When I achieve that, I actually find peace and contentment. I become more optimistic, and I do believe that everything that happens to us, happens for the good of us.”
“I have learned, for example, that nothing is a coincidence. When I look at it from a different perspective, I get that I just have to take a step back and see that not everything is about me. What I try to do now is to become a better person and try to do what I have to do as a housewife, because that’s my duty. That has been my priority since I got married. In the end, I’m so happy with what I have. I have two beautiful, happy children. They are my precious possessions. They make me overjoyed every single day. I have no time to be stressed out.”
Cathy credits her family as her biggest support system that keeps her going. They stay with her through the crisis, and have been her confidantes in dark moments. “I’m very close to my sisters, and I do spend a lot of time with my in-laws. I don’t know how I could have done it without them. I’m very thankful because the crisis actually brought us close together. My in-laws are the most caring, forgiving, loving and understanding people I’ve ever met. My sister-in-law, who was breastfeeding the same time I did, was my breastfeeding mentor,” Cathy says. Besides, her growing spirituality gives her a new perspective on living life. “I have a strong community that gives me strength. That’s how I’ve been very
zen about everything,” she smiles. Cathy is determined to reset her life by creating new opportunities. She has started The Kale Tale, a healthy snack startup, with sisters Julie Estelle and Christie Charlotte. The business idea came when Cathy suffered from iron deficiency during her first pregnancy. She did a lot of research on iron-heavy diets, and found out about the goodness of kale. After Jacob was born, Cathy took it upon herself to prepare food for him. She experimented with different menus, and to mix things up, she made chips out of the raw kale as snacks. “I never wanted to be one of those mothers who had to fight with her kids to make them eat vegetables. Thankfully, my kids love green juice and kale chips,” Cathy says.
On a personal level, Cathy has also started to eat healthier and work out more. In fact “to live healthily” is one of the top resolutions she has set for 2017. “I don’t starve myself or anything, but I try to balance the healthy days and cheat days. I do love any food with coconut milk in it, including my all-time favourite
“One of the good things that come out of my crisis is that I can completely be myself”
soto mie,” she shares. “But after those cheat days, I go back to living a healthy diet and exercising. They make me feel good.”
The Kale Tale is truly a family affair, since the vegetable is grown at Cathy’s father-in-law’s farm, and then processed and packaged at the sisters’ workshop in South Jakarta. “We have found a method that makes the kale crispy without frying or baking. The end product has the same minerals and vitamins as raw kale, but you don’t even feel like you’re eating raw vegetable!” Cathy enthuses. The chips, as well as smoothies and raw cakes, can now be found at yoga studios, beauty clinics and salons around Jakarta, besides being sold through Instagram.
Cathy happily says that some of her customers who are mothers give her very positive feedback about the kale chips. “They say that their children love the chips so much, they don’t even realise they are eating vegetables!” She aspires to continue growing The Kale Tale, now a home industry, into a fullfledged business venture.
Cathy has also started a business in party supplies with her sister-inlaw, Devie Kusuma. Aptly named It’s Party Time, the business is now Instagram-based, but in the works to develop into brick-and-mortar. “One of the things I learned this year is about party decoration. I’m very excited about It’s Party Time, but we are taking it one step at a time. We want to see how the customers respond to our products, and learn about the market, before opening stores,” Cathy says.
Would Cathy ever go back into the entertainment industry? Before getting married, she starred in six movies, including hit horror flick Bangku Kosong (2006). She has also acted in many TV series and hosted different shows including daily infotainment !nsert (2007), following her successful stint at MTV Indonesia. “I always love making movies and working in the entertainment industry, that’s why until now I still host, present and appear in photo shoots. But I only take one-off gigs, not the ones with long hours like making movies, because at the moment I have a different set of priorities. Perhaps I’ll do more when the kids are older.”
Besides business and motherhood, Cathy is getting back to doing social work, one of the things she has always loved. At the end of last year, she helped out the Sant’Egidio community in arranging a Christmas lunch for over 600 children in South Jakarta. Sant’Egidio is an international community that began in Rome and dedicates itself to charity and evangelisation. The community’s lunch was held in different spots the city, with a total of over 6,000 children and elderly people. “It was a change for me, because I usually go on holiday or spend time at home with family throughout the festive season. I did something different last Christmas, and it made me feel all warm inside,” she says.
Cathy admitted that she put her environmental activities and charity work on the backseat when she became a mother. “I’m slowly going back to doing more charity and activism. My part might be small, but from doing that, I gain power and happiness. I don’t have time to be negative,” she says.
Now that she is in a better place after surviving the storm, Cathy believes that this is time for her to spread the positive spirit. “One of the good things that come out of my crisis is that I have no pressure to make a face or pretend that nothing is happening. I can completely be myself. I have always been myself, on and off camera, but I tried very much not to reveal anything about my personal life. Now, I can share more things publicly since everything is written about in the media. Now I focus on the women out there who are going through what I’m going through. I hope I can share the positivity I have with them, to let them know that they’re not alone.”