In her stride

Ten years since she made her TV hosting debut, Marion Caunter has expanded her horizons.

IN recent years, a lot has changed for one of the most recognisable faces on television. E! News Asia host Marion Caunter has gotten married, become a mom to Leia Rose Nasarudin, started two businesses and once again, her life is about to change again with the impending arrival of her second child.

With all this going on, the 32-year-old remains relaxed, calm and upbeat – at our photo shoot a few days ago, Caunter chatted and joked around with us (photographer, make-up artist and hair stylist) while bringing us up to speed on the changes in her life.

The ever-popular TV host has recently taken on several new roles, and chats excitedly about her new hair salon business.

Confessing to being borderline obsessed with having great hair, and having never quite found the perfect salon, she decided to go into business with expert stylist Shaun Yap.

Two months ago, they launched the classy hair sanctuary Hairplay in Solaris Dutamas, and it has been a success so far, with Yap running the salon day-to-day and Caunter working on other areas.

“He’s in charge of running the salon, he takes care of the whole team and I do more of the financial bit and so on, the boring stuff,” says Caunter with a laugh. “It’s been amazing, there have been ups and downs of course, one of the most stressful times was the launch, dealing with teething issues and so on.”

From having to change the salon’s signage to ensuring ventilation was such that food fumes from surrounding restaurants didn’t end up in the salon, the team had their hands full in the weeks leading up to the launch.

Now that the salon is up and running, Caunter is working on engaging their customers more, one of the first projects being an Instagram competition.

“In mid-August we’re running a competition where people can submit their videos to tell us why they want to get a makeover to look like whoever their favourite celebrity is, and they’ll win a full makeover with hair and make-up and a photo shoot, just as a way to engage our followers,” explains Caunter, who herself has 72,000 followers on the photo sharing website.

With a second baby on the way, Caunter admits that while she misses hosting, not having to travel back and forth to Singapore has been a relief.

“I think people miss it more than I do, especially my mum,” laughs Caunter, referring to the E! News Asia show. “But to be honest, I miss hosting, but not the travel. I would be on a plane every other day, four times a week! It was exhausting. In my situation right now, I feel more tired. I have to take care of my daughter and remember that I’m pregnant, to take care of myself too. It’s a whole different ballgame.”

Still, despite juggling hosting, her new business venture and motherhood, Caunter still finds time to manage the Marna Ro clothing line (based in LA) that she started with her husband.

“Marna Ro is still happening, we have a collection and we pitch it to anyone that’s interested to buy like departments stores and online portals. Farah Khan picked it up for the M Store, and our Fall collection will be available there soon,” says Caunter.

“We’re working on it, it’s not a walk in the park, we have a team based there and it’s not exactly a two hour flight away, we run it mostly through Skype. We just finished fitting with our models for the latest collection, it’s a constant work in progress, and with Leia I can’t just take off anymore and my husband is always making the trips.

“It’s a bit sad because I’d like to be there to see the clothes for myself, feel the materials and try them on rather than looking at pictures,” she adds.

She admits to sometimes missing her carefree days, when she could just come and go as she pleased, but says she wouldn’t trade motherhood for anything else in the world.

“There are days when I feel like I’m doing a horrible job, there are days when I feel I’ve got it under control, but that’s when you need a great husband to tell you that you’re doing a good job,” says Caunter. “Mums have to give themselves more credit.”

Having been through the whole process before, Caunter has some advice for mums-to-be.

“From day one, just go with the flow. Know that there’s only so much you can control, and keep an open mind, things will go the way they’re meant to go,” she advises. (For more from Caunter on motherhood, refer to pages 8 and 9)