Yedda Marie Mendoza Kittilsvedt-Romualdez (, born October 22, 1973) is a Filipina-Norwegian beauty queen and politician.

Personal life

Romualdez' father is from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and her mother is from

Cebu Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 ...

. She is a niece of actress

Pilar Pilapil Pilar, Portuguese and Spanish for pillar, may refer to: People * Pilar (given name), a common abbreviation of ''María del Pilar'', including a list of people so named * Pilar (surname), a list of people surnamed Pilar or del Pilar Places Argen ...

who was crowned as Binibining Pilipinas-Universe in 1967. She graduated in nursing from the

Cebu Doctors' College Cebu Doctors' University, also referred to by its acronym CDU and colloquially Cebu Doc, is a private nonsectarian coeducational higher education institution located in Mandaue City, Cebu, Philippines. It was founded in 1973 at Cebu City as Cebu ...

Cebu City Cebu City, officially the City of Cebu ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Sugbo; fil, Lungsod ng Cebu; hil, Dakbanwa sang Sugbo), is a 1st class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas Regions of the P ...

and is a registered nurse. She is married to

Martin Romualdez Ferdinand Martin Gomez Romualdez (, born November 14, 1963) is a Filipino businessman, lawyer and politician serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives since July 25, 2022. He is also serving as the Representative for the 1st dis ...

who currently serves as a congressman from Leyte and as the 24th Speaker of the House of Representatives since 2022.

Pageantry

Romualdez first competed in the Supermodel of the World-Philippines pageant in 1991 where she was first runner up to Lorena Pangan. She competed in the

Binibining Pilipinas Binibining Pilipinas (abbreviated as Bb. Pilipinas; ) is a national beauty pageant in the Philippines that selects Filipina representatives to compete in one of the Big Four international beauty pageants: Miss International and selects two ot ...

pageant in 1996 but lost to Aileen Damiles. Instead, she became the country's representative in the Miss International competition in Japan, where she placed in the Top 15.

Political career

Romualdez was the representative of the

first district First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has be ...

in the

House of Representatives of the Philippines The House of Representatives of the Philippines ( fil, Kapulungan ng mga Kinatawan ng Pilipinas, italic=unset, ''Kamara'' or ''Kamara de Representantes'' from the Spanish language, Spanish word ''cámara'', meaning "chamber") is the lower house ...

from 2016 to 2019. She is also the first nominee of Tingog Sinirangan partylist and has served as its representative in Congress since 2019.

References

{{Reflist 1973 births Filipino people of Norwegian descent Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from Leyte (province) Women members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Party-list members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Beauty queen-politicians Living people