Filipino-American TikTok star Bella Poarch is back in the Philippines after 14 years.
On her TikTok page, Bella documented her return to the country while dealing with a stye on her eyelid.
"It's been 14 years since I went back to the Philippines and there's no way I'm going to cancel over a stye," she said.
After landing in the Philippines, Bella went straight to the hospital for surgery of the stye.
"I had an important shoot in a week so I decided to get a last-minute surgery. The surgery went so smooth, and I am so grateful for the Filipino nurses and doctors that took care of me," she relayed.
Following the procedure, Bella went directly to a dress fitting. "I did a fitting after my surgery, yes a fitting because we gotta look cute and headed to the airport after," she shared.
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Bella then travelled to Bohol. "When we got to our hotel in Bohol we were greeted with a surprise," the content creator said.
By the end of the video, Bella removed the gauze from her eye: "No bruise, no swelling. And now I'm ready for the Philippines."
In an interview with Press ESC in December 2024, Bella expressed her excitement to visit the Philippines again. "I’m actually going home soon. I’m really excited. I can’t wait for this year to be over so I can go," she said.
When she was growing up in the Philippines, Bella relayed that she was exposed to farming and planted more than 30 mango trees at that time.
"My brother was sending me photos, and it’s insane to see them fully grown. I loved it. It was a fun experience for me, honestly. I’m actually grateful because I got to learn agriculture," she remarked. "Now I know how to plant corn and mango trees and how to take care of coconut trees."
In 2015, Bela enlisted in the US navy which made coming back to the Philippines challenging. "I was in the military, and usually, it’s really hard to go back to the Philippines when you’re in the military. I never really did it (returning to the Philippines) because, at that moment, I was working 12 to 14 hours a day. So, I didn’t have time," she recounted.
Bella was 17 when she joined the military in order to escape an abusive household. "I just didn’t want to be there forever. And so, the military was one way out. And I also just didn’t want to be like, you know, just run away and be homeless and stuff. And so yeah, that was, like, my one option," she recalled.
Bella was supposed to return to the Philippines in 2020 but the pandemic happened. "I got out of the military, and I booked a flight to [the] Philippines [in] 2020, this was before TikTok and everything," she pointed out. “Covid happened, so it got canceled. My flight got canceled."