Donita Rose Ramos Cavett was born in Utah on 5 December 1974 and moved to the Philippines when she was five years old. She is the eldest daughter to an American father, William Kent Cavett, a military officer, and a Filipino mother, Evelyn Ramos, a teacher from Pangasinan. She attended high school at Brent International School and college at De La Salle University.

As a teenager, Rose’s acting debut began in That’s Entertainment alongside co-star Gary Estrada with whom she had a relationship before moving to Singapore. Her first film was Gabo in 1989 by Regal Entertainment. In 1992, she starred in two Filipino sitcoms, Alabang Girls by Viva Entertainment and Ober Da Bakod, as well as its 1996 sequel Ober Da Bakod 2 where she played as Barbie Doll. In 2002, she starred with Piolo Pascual in the romantic drama film 9 Mornings as Elise Romasanta. In 2003, she starred in the Filipino comic book film adaptation of Mars Ravelo’s Lastikman as Linda, the love interest of Hilario/Lastikman, played by Vic Sotto.

In 1997, Rose moved to Singapore to pursue a career as a video jockey for MTV Asia.

In 2001, Rose met Eric Villarama after she migrated to Angeles, Pampanga and their relationship blossomed for two years. She then married Villarama in Santa Barbara, California in 2003. The couple had a son named Joshua Paul, born in 2004. In the summer of 2007, they moved to Manila.

She formerly hosted ABS-CBN’s morning news and entertainment show Umagang Kay Ganda. In May 2014, she hosted a former Filipino morning variety-talk show on GMA called Basta Every Day, Happy! which she co-hosted with Gladys Reyes, Alessandra De Rossi and Chef Boy Logro.

In 2015, Rose reportedly had bouts in her marriage of 12 years with Eric Villarama but she maintained a positive relationship with him and decided to live together once more despite admitting the fact that she almost signed their divorce papers. The following year, however, in an interview with Mo Twister on his online podcast Good Times with Mo aired on July 12, 2016, Rose publicly confirmed her separation with Villarama after she allegedly found Instagram photos of her husband with his new partner whom he reportedly started seeing in April 2016. Although the photos were taken down by Villarama the following day, other sources were able to screen capture one of the photos of Villarama and his new partner together.