MICHELLE Chia had big plans for her wedding dinner.

Apart from celebrating her marriage to her actor husband Shaun Chen, she had also wanted to announce that she was pregnant.

But no thanks to a packed work schedule after the nuptials, Michelle said she had to postpone her plans to become a mother.

“I’m not thinking of how many children I want now,” she said.

“I leave things to nature. Things like these can’t be rushed and it’s not up to me to decide how many children I’ll have.”

Looking at her schedule, it’s surprising she even found time to get married.

She had spent the few months prior to her wedding dinner in May filming Channel 5’s Polo Boys.

After returning from her honeymoon in Europe, she again packed her bags to film local variety shows in four countries – Taipei for Fashion Asia, the Philippines for Stars For A Cause, China for Food Hometown and Malaysia for Going Home.

She said:“My first programme filmed overseas was with Shaun when we returned to his home town for Going Home.

“But we had only three days there because Shaun had to come back to Singapore to film the drama Your Hand In Mine. I also had to go overseas for filming.”

Shaun recently attended the press conference for Your Hand In Mine where he was asked several times if Michelle was pregnant.

From the time they started dating to their marriage, the couple have been under public scrutiny.

“It’s okay, people are concerned about us,” said Michelle, who is currently working on two variety shows and will soon take on two televised charity fund-raising shows.

“We are under greater pressure, but I also want to thank everyone for their good intentions.

“I think this is something that everyone goes through.When you’re not dating, people will ask you when you want to start dating. After that, they will ask when you’re getting married and when you’re having children.

“A long time later, they will ask when your kids are getting married. It’s a cycle. I get these questions too when I attend family gatherings so we are used to it.”

Michelle comes from a small family and has one younger brother. But Shaun comes from a big family.

The couple have already agreed before marriage to have two children.

Gone missing?

Michelle also appears to have gone missing from Channel 8and Channel U.

How long has it been since she was in a Channel 8 drama?

She said: “I filmed Destiny after returning to MediaCorp in 2005, and two years later I filmed Taste Of Love. It’s been another two years now.

“I filmed Channel U’s A Perfect Cut last year and its sequel this year. Although I enjoy hosting variety shows, I do get the itch to act after a long break.”

In comparison to Channel 8 dramas, Michelle said Channel 5 productions are not filmed in studios and filming hours are also more comfortable because there’s only one production team.

This is unlike Channel 8 productions where there are several teams filming at the same time. It would be more tiring if an actor has to rush from working with one team to another.

This article was first published in The New Paper.