Regina Todorenko: «I became more responsible and sentimental»
We talked to Regina Todorenko two years ago. During this time, the famous TV presenter and singer became a mother for the first time, got married to Vlad Topalov and is actively developing in the field of production.
Soon your son will be one year old. This is a big event in the family. Already know how and where you will celebrate?
When a child turns a year old, I think it’s a very significant event for any mother, and even more so for one who has her first child. I think that Vlad and I will celebrate with our family, and we have a very large family. We will probably gather everyone in some big, warm and cozy house. It would probably be my father’s house. We’ll make some interesting decorations, hang balloons everywhere. Despite the fact that Michael is only 11 months old, he already has certain preferences – he loves everything round: balls, balls. And it seems to me that such a children’s holiday will be to his liking. And parents and adults will bring a lot of pleasant emotions.
Pregnancy and childbirth often radically change a woman, forcing her to reconsider her views on life and herself. What did you learn about yourself when you had a baby? What changes have family and friends noticed?
With the birth of my child, I realized how much maternal instinct was raging in me. I’ve always been family-oriented, I’ve always loved children, but it wasn’t until Michael came along that I realized the power of that love. As it seems to me, I learned to “speak” infantile language quite quickly. I really hope that all my skills and knowledge that I have acquired over these 1.5 years, having read dozens of books on psychology, parenting (and adults), on family relationships – all this will bear fruit. I became more responsible and more sentimental. I weep for every little deed of our man. When he learns to hold a spoon in his hands, when he says “nya-nya-nya” when dives into the pool holding his breath, when he takes his first steps holding onto the handrail – I feel happy and I cry. It’s such an incredible experience! And the nicest feeling is when you are proud not of yourself, not of any goals you’ve achieved, results you’ve achieved, but proud of your loved one. That sense of pride in someone came into me when I got married. I became very proud of my husband and now I am very proud of my son and his little exploits.
Two years ago, during an interview with our magazine, you were a singer and TV host. Now we see a successful TV host with millions of views on YouTube, a producer, a singer, and a wife and mother. What is it like to combine so many hypostases? What do you have to sacrifice to be able to do everything?
In fact, combining all of this together is quite difficult. Because if at work, for example, you don’t have enough knowledge – you can go and study, if one of your subordinates isn’t doing his job well – you can break up with that person, but it’s very different in the family. You can’t fire yourself or your husband, it’s too easy. Because we want to achieve great goals and heights together, we try to be united and work on our relationship. And in order to spend more time together, Vlad even became my co-host on “Friday with Regina. And now we are the whole family on the set: while we are in the frame, our little son is in the dressing room. He has his own big separate room, with a cradle, with a changing table, with everything necessary and important for an infant, where I run to him, When I have time, I babysit him, I study him, I manage to teach him different words, I think, because he already says the first words “mama” and “papa” and “dai”. I talk to him sometimes in English in between shoots, I learn scripts with him, I read him my monologues, my interviews, and I hope he likes it. In fact, with the birth of Michael, my shooting schedule has become dependent on him. Everyone adjusts to his regimen, since I’m a nursing mother. И I am very grateful to my camera crews, my employees, colleagues, as well as the brands that I work with for all of them stepping in and understanding what a difficult but interesting job it is to be a mother, and adjusting to our son’s wishes. But if we’re talking about sacrifices, I guess for now I’m sacrificing time with my husband. It’s very difficult. But he understands everything. We certainly miss our outings when we only spend time with each other. And even when we go out just the two of us, we’re very worried about Michael. We’ve only had three such outings so far in the whole 10 months, and at the end of October the two of us spent 1.5 days in Italy, and tried to enjoy each other.
You are currently hosting two shows at once, “Friday with Regina” and “Regina+1,” which are completely different in subject matter and rating. Doesn’t it offend you that your informative show for young mothers has far fewer views on YouTube than star interviews, even though you received a TEFI statuette for it?
First of all, these are two shows of completely different formats, with different audiences, content, and platforms on which they air. “Friday with Regina” is created primarily for those who do not watch TV, but are active YouTube users. “Regina+1” is a television project that, accordingly, has few views on the expanse of YouTube, but a fairly high rating on TV. TEFI is one of the most important and global television awards and I am proud to have received this award for a television show. Unfortunately, YouTube has not yet come up with such an award, and so far the most important award there is getting the “gold” and “diamond” buttons, which we as a team strive for. We’re not long away from getting a “gold” , as the show “Friday with Regina” is actively gaining momentum. The last 1.5 years have been very productive for our entire team. We created the show from scratch, constantly changing it, improving it. During this time we not only managed to shoot episodes with Ksenia Sobchak, Polina Gagarina, Olga Buzova, but also managed to work with international stars, such as Mario Casas, for example. We meet with the team all the time and think through different moves, different casts, scripted plans, games, and everything that our show is based on It’s scary to imagine, but the show will soon have a 5th (!) season! By the way, it was “Friday with Regina” that was a kind of impetus for the emergence of “Regina+1” and my position at the time, of course, was the driver for the creation of this show. When I was pregnant, I was asked to host a show about pregnant women. Different options were considered, but I decided to give up on a reality show, like the Kardashians, and ennoble the show after all. That’s how “Regina+1” came to be.And I’m very grateful to my family, my son, because if it wasn’t for him and my husband, the TEFI award statuette I wouldn’t have it now. And I hope that this is just the beginning, and in the future I’ll get more than one more statuette, but as a producer and creator of a reality show. I’ll tell you about reality later.
The travel show “Heads & Tails” gave a bright start to your career as a TV presenter. Don’t you miss that time? Do you plan to return to the project or to a show of this format in the future, when the baby is older?
I really love Heads & Tails, and I’m grateful to the producers and all those who work on the project for the opportunity to be a part of this travel show. The decision to leave the project was not easy for me. But at some point I realized that I was tired of backpacking around the world, I had become boring and uninteresting to the viewer, I was no longer surprised by five-star hotels and fancy seafood. I wanted to take a break, get a family and create my own show. That was the plan, and I think I’ve accomplished that plan now. Well, we’ll see what happens next. After all, I love to travel and even now I do not stop doing it. Almost every month Michael and I go somewhere: to shoot commercials, to interviews, and recently we went to the Calzedonia show in Verona, where I interviewed Italian star Chiara Ferragni, by the way. Travel in my life is enough, as are the stamps in Michael’s passport. By the way, he already has five of his own magnets on the fridge from different countries. While I want to travel with my family, my husband and child. If it’s possible to do it as part of the “Head & Tails” show, then why not?
You already have everything you can dream of… What more often now you say to yourself: “That’s it, Regina, you can breathe out, stop and enjoy the moment!” or “Rest in another life, but meanwhile we need to have time to do this and that”?
Sure, we’ll rest in the next life! In fact, I realized that before you’re 30 you’re in a hurry, you’re always on the move, running somewhere, trying to get everything done. But there’s a phrase I really love: “If you want to go fast, go alone, and if you want to go far, go together.” So, from 18 to 28 I was walking alone and walking very fast, and since 28, since I got married, I’ve been walking with a big family. I may not be going as fast, but I’m definitely going far. And I enjoy the moment much more now than I did in my 20s, when time seemed fleeting, emotional to me. Now I want to ground myself a little and live in the present. But nevertheless, I still continue to move forward and create new projects. Right now I’m working on a reality show that I hope will be on my YouTube channel and on television. And here one of the main tasks is to calculate the correct estimate and distribute the budget. That’s the scariest part for me, but that’s what I’m a producer for, to learn how to cover those budgets. And I’m still continuing to work on making “Friday with Regina.”