This year is very special for Carmen Villalobos and Sebastián Caicedo. They will celebrate 13 years as a couple and two years of marriage. Throughout this time, they have established themselves as one of the most stable couples in television. They nurture their relationship with discretion by keeping it out of the spotlight.
It seems like yesterday when the two met on the set of the novela, ‘Nadie es Eterno en el Mundo,’ (2007). More than a decade later, Carmen and Sebastián are starting a new chapter together. In an exclusive interview for HOLA! USA, the couple revealed they’ve made the decision to move to Miami.
After a long process that was delayed by the pandemic, they were finally able to establish their love nest in Miami; along Carmen’s mother and her inseparable dogs: Freud, Capuchin and Mambo.
For the ‘Café con Aroma de Mujer’ actress (Telemundo), this new cycle in her life is an invigorating one. In this spectacular photoshoot, Carmen and Sebastián got candid with the team and shared the meaning of their lives and the reason why they decided to establish in Florida. Plus, they told us about their amazing upcoming projects (soon to be shared with their followers). And yes, one day, they will have children running around the house!
How do you feel about your new house in Miami?
[Carmen]: Very happy, we have always loved Miami, its weather, we always have a very delicious time here, so we made the decision to come and live here. [Sebastián]: Illusion of starting a new life, especially after everything we are going through with the pandemic. We are arriving with new illusions, with new dreams and we come to build many more here.
At what point did you decide that you already wanted to buy a house?
[Sebastián]: These are goals and dreams we built in advance, and buying a house is not that easy. We come from Colombia with a much weaker currency. It was a business opportunity that we saw a few years ago and have been paying little by little, taking out a 30-year loan ... don’t think that this has already been paid (laughs). We did like any person, we took out a loan, we had some savings and we are paying it off little by little.
You also moved in with your dogs, Freud, Capuchino and Mambo ...
[Carmen]: Yes! They are our four-legged children. They are part of the family and they had to come here with us. [Sebastián]: They are already part of our family. Wherever we are, we always try to have them by our side.
How is the decoration of the house coming along?
[Sebastián]: We have learned that just because we have a house does not mean that we have to buy everything at once. The spaces must be filled little by little. We are not of many furniture - luxury ones. For now we are with the essentials. [Carmen]: We are looking at what we like and how each space in the house vibrates in order to decorate it.
Why did you make the final decision to move to Miami?
[Sebastián]: It is a very important decision and more so when you are moving from one country to another, starting with the work and professional part, buying a house ... then, while we were organizing and locating ourselves, for example with the process with visas. So far we are in the processing our residency. There is a whole process to get to the United States safely and the pandemic stopped that process a bit.
You left many things behind in Colombia, what do you miss the most?
[Carmen]: Leaving is not in our plans. We remain connected with Colombia, it is our country and there is our life, our families, our friends. We chose Miami, because it is close to Colombia, we can go at any time. Your land or roots are never left. [Sebastián]: We are going to leave the day to day of many things, but we are connected by family, my father, my mother. We also have investments there, so we can’t stop coming and going.
How did your parents took the news?
[Sebastián]: Well, Carmen’s mother lives with us, so she only had to pack her bags. [Carmen]: My mother says: “You just tell me, I’ll pack my suitcase and I’m ready.”
Who does the chores in the house?
[Sebastián]: Technology, thank God, we have a dishwasher, a washing machine, but we have a great help that very few people have and they can afford that luxury and it is… [Carmen]: My mommy! (laughs) My mother is like our right hand, without her this house would not work and I talk about the minimum things and obviously we fully trust her. It helps us a lot in this run on a day-to-day basis. She reminds us that we have to make payments here, there.
Who is better in the kitchen?
[Carmen]: We are going at a loss here. Sebastián does not cook, neither do I. Now that we were recently in Bogotá and we had to share the apartment for four days, it was like… “delivery!”
And now that you already have the house, don’t you want to see children running around it. Do you want a big family?
[Sebastián]: The house doesn’t have many rooms, my mother-in-law already has one and the other are guests (laughs). I don’t know, we can leave it in the air… [Carmen]: I think it is a decision that has not yet been made, the public knows what we think about children and we have always said that if they have to arrive when have to arrive we will be very happy to have them, and if they do not arrive too, because we have always had a very clear position on that. If tomorrow we decide yes, it will be a very big surprise for everyone.
What is the secret to maintaining such a beautiful and lasting relationship?
[Carmen]: When you start living with your partner, there are many things that change and the word routine is stigmatized because there are good routines. When you learn to know your partner there are things that become routine but it is up to you not to become a boring monotony. We try to maintain our spaces, we continue to admire each other, we continue to have projects. [Sebastián]: There is something very important and that is that we are a team and that team has to go through several games or several states. This team always has dreams and we are drawing more dreams and how great when the protagonist of the dream is she or I, we always complement each other. The idea is to continue growing hand in hand. We have very big dreams. This year we celebrate 13 years together and two years of marriage, stronger than ever and this team is there for many more games.
How are you closing this year?
[Carmen]: We had a great year together thus far, with a project on a personal level that we have been working on for almost a year and a half. We thought it was going to see the light last year, but it couldn’t, so we had to restructure a lot of things and we continue to put the tab on that project. [Sebastián]: It was already ready in Colombia, now we have to bring it here to the United States where there are many regulations that are not the same as in Colombia. Just as we are doing our status process in the United States, we also want our project to enter in the best way here. We are getting to know what the tax and legal part is like and it is not an easy task. I am leading that project right now, here we go.
Can you tell us what this project is about?
[Carmen]: Not yet! Because as Sebas says, we had it almost ready in Colombia but we decided to bring it here. We were about to make public, but we will tell you soon. [Sebastián]: We can tell you that it is for all the fans who are going to be in love and more connected with us..
In November you will celebrate yours first Thanksgiving as a family in the United States ...
[Carmen]: Yes, it‘s true! Thanksgiving is one of the dates that I told Sebastián that I wanted to start celebrating because it is very nice to be able to say thank you, from opening your eyes in the morning and breathing and knowing that you have a new day ahead of you to big projects that come into our lives. [Sebastián:] This is news that makes us happy because they are those dates that remind us to be grateful, especially for being healthy in these difficult times.