The story follows the lives of two best friends, Monica Santiago (Angel Locsin) and Nicole Esquivel (Maja Salvador). Friends from childhood, both yearn for a father's love.
Monica's mother Eloisa (Rio Locsin) escapes a controlling, jealous and violent husband but is only able to take her baby daughter. Her two sons were left behind. They are saved from the streets by her childhood sweetheart Dante Ramos (Mark Gil) who brings them to Daet, Camarines Norte, a beautiful province in the northern region of the Philippines. Dante raises Monica as if she were his child. Meanwhile, Dante leaves his girlfriend Camille Esquivel for Eloisa, unaware that she is pregnant with Nicole. All throughout her childhood, Nicole longs to meet her father.
When Monica turns 7, her mother returns to her husband as she longs to be reunited with her sons. Monica is bewildered by a whole new environment with her wealthy father Javier (Christopher de Leon), and her two brothers Javi (Joem Bascon) and Jasper (Ahron Villena).
When Camille passes away, Nicole is adopted by her landed industrialist and wealthy grandfather, Don Eduardo Esquievel. The two little girls meet during interscholastic intramurals. They learn that they share the same "father" and lose him due to unforeseen circumstances in their lives. They become fast friends and bond like orphaned sisters, remaining close throughout their adult lives.
Upon returning to her true family, Monica learns to love her real father and her two brothers. Her Papa, Don Joaquin loves Eloisa, forgives his wife and is kinder to her. Eloisa reciprocates wholeheartedly and learns to love and care for Joaquin. Her feelings for Dante fade away.
Despite their painful past, the Santiago family thrives. Don Joaquin is a wealthy sardines magnate. Unfortunately, Eloisa's past mistakes is traumatic for the two older children she left behind years ago, deeply wounding the family's psyche, particularly her eldest son Javie who rejects his relationship with his mother and his sister Monica.
Nicole suffers a similar trauma growing up without her father, severely affecting her attitude towards men, constantly seeking love and validation from the wrong men. The two best friends' relationship collide when they love the same man.
Monica meets and falls in love with Adrian (Jericho Rosales), the man she marries, who teaches her how to love again and who will also break her heart.
Despite being madly in love with his wife, the pressures brought about on their lives, arising from the dynamics of their respective families' dysfunctional relationships, Adrian is drawn to his wife's best friend and embarks on an illicit affair with Nicole. Nicole is deeply enamored of her best friend's husband who gives her the care and attention she seeks. She risks her life long friendship with Monica.
The discovery of the affair is explosive. The consequences of Adrian's affair and deception, love and lust, is vividly portrayed in the entire series.
The Legal Wife was originally planned to air on October 28, 2013.[12] It was later pushed back to November 2013 and was set to replace Bukas na Lang Kita Mamahalin. But due to the request of Koreanovela fans and taping conflicts because of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), the airing was postponed because of Korean drama When a Man Falls in Love.[2][13] Eventually, the series had its pilot episode broadcast last January 27, 2014 as part of ABS-CBN's Primetime Bida block. Initially, the series was supposed to replace When a Man Falls in Love, but later ends up taking over the timeslot vacated by Maria Mercedes due to the demanding request of Koreanovela fans.[14][15]
Reception
Critical reception
Prior to the official airing of the television series, ABS-CBN launched several teasers of the show. One was the slapping scene between Angel Locsin and Maja Salvador's characters aired on January 1, 2014. The trailer was well received and went even viral all over the web, creating parodies and memes.[16]
Since the first episode, the show became a hot topic online and even trended on Twitter worldwide.[17]
Television ratings
Basing on the data gathered by Kantar Media, the pilot episode earned 21.1% of national viewership, making it the 5th most watched primetime program. It is the first drama on Philippine television to win in its late primetime slot in the ratings in all of its episodes.[18] The finale of The Legal Wife scored its biggest nationwide rating of 36.2%. This currently stands as the country's highest rating by any TV show on late primetime since the Philippines switched to nationwide TV ratings system in 2009.
The theme song Hanggang Kailan Kita Mamahalin? was originally performed by Sharon Cuneta and served as the theme song for the 1996 film Madrasta, which also starred Cuneta alongside Zsa Zsa Padilla and Christopher de Leon. The film was produced by Star Cinema. It was covered by Angeline Quinto and it was used as the theme song for the TV series.
Reruns
Reruns of the show's episodes aired on Jeepney TV from March 14 to June 14, 2016; June 10, 2017 to January 14, 2018; August 12 to October 17, 2019; and July 17, 2021 to March 19, 2022.[21]
On March 18, 2020, ABS-CBN announced that the show would be rerun beginning March 23, 2020 via the network's Kapamilya Gold afternoon block, taking over the timeslot of Love Thy Woman, which had finished airing it's pre-taped episodes, as part of ABS-CBN's temporary programming changes due to the enhanced community quarantine caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines.[22] This rerun was originally supposed to end on May 15, 2020.[23]
Due to its phenomenal success, the series had an adaptation in Malaysia titled Isteri Halal which aired on Malaysian TV channel Astro Ria from February 27 to June 2, 2023.[25][26]
