Belén Esteban—50 years of life, almost 30 in the social and television spotlight—is literally having her hair combed for the presentation of Not even if we were Sálvame. We are at the headquarters of their production company, Fabricantes Studio, a place a stone’s throw from the Mediaset headquarters, which serves as a set for the new format, among a mess of cables, lights, microphones and very young professionals swarming everywhere with their nerves. typical of a premiere. Esteban, with the unmistakable image and the unmistakable voice of Esteban, seems, however, very calm. She poses disciplined for the photos, asks permission to smoke, asks my name (“to address you, as if I knew you, which is better”) and gets to work with a curious attitude somewhere between collegial and snobby. There are plenty of tables. The day after this interview, Mediaset demanded that Fabricantes Studio not use the brand Save me in their broadcasts, and they had to change the title of the space to It’s not like we were Shhh. The supposed deterrent effect on the audience of the network’s demand was null. The first program, presented by María Patiño and with a good part of the original cast commenting on current affairs and skinning others around a table, has more than a million views on social networks and the videos of the second installment exceed the 1.6 million. But, when we spoke, Belén still didn’t know.
What profession do I put next to your name in the interview?
Entertaining. That’s what I do. My job is to entertain people. And I love it.
I have journalist colleagues who boast that they don’t know who you are.
Lie. For good or bad, they know me. My bosses say one thing and they are absolutely right: half of Spain loves me and the other half hates me. Many journalists say no, but I’m telling you that everyone knows who I am.
And why do you think they deny it?
Well, because maybe, and I respect it, because of my way of being and speaking, they don’t feel identified with me, like they think I’m a geek I do not care. Honestly, I’m totally over it. I know who I am, which is very important. But, come on, if any journalist in Spain says that he doesn’t know me, he is lying.
Or he doesn’t watch his shows.
I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and not just on TV. I have been going out daily for almost 15 years Save meand in Ana Rosa’s program [Quintana], I was with her for nine years, and I have immense affection for her. In fact, it was her partner, Chelo Montesinos, who discovered me for this. Therefore, when they say that those of Not even if we were… We have come to kill Ana Rosa, it hurts me, because I, of course, don’t want to kill her.
What have you learned from TV in this time?
A lot. I know how to make TV, I can’t tell you how, but I know. I respect journalists, they have a career and they work very well, well, some better than others, I honestly tell you. I am not. I have been wrong 1,500 times, but other times, no. The other day I was talking to my friend Mariví, who has been friends since we were three years old. I have always said that I regret having done some things on TV. But, at this point in life, I think I should have done more.
Expose yourself more than you is difficult.
Of course it’s difficult. I have told my life many times, but people only know what I wanted to tell, because my life also affects other people. I have remained silent a lot, and I will continue to do so, out of respect for what I love most, which is my mother and my daughter. But I have also kept quiet about things that I shouldn’t have kept quiet about. At this point in life I am no longer anyone’s ex, nor do I want to be the town princess anymore. I am Belén Esteban Menéndez, alias The landlady. My friends call him, affectionately, and I have tattooed him on my arm, because he represents me.
Is she the patron saint of your life?
Yes, I always have been, but, above all, since I was well. And that was 13 years ago. [Alude a la superación de sus adicciones, que confesó ella misma en Sálvame].
Do you celebrate that birthday, in addition to your biological one?
Never, that is a door that I have closed in my life and I want it to stay closed.
Who saved her from that?
I saved myself because I wanted to save myself, with the help of my friends and my family. I am a person who has a normal family, my brothers, my sisters-in-law, my mother, and my father, who died 18 years ago, but he has been very important in my life. What I appreciate most is loyalty.
What do you think it gives us to be in the limelight for so long?
To be me. It has to be you, this can’t go to your head. When they tell me about egos, okay, there will be people who have egos, but I’m not like that. I have always tried to be the girl who came out of the San Blas neighborhood, with working-class parents, like the majority in Spain. I have the same friends as when I was little.
Now he also interacts with aristocrats, such as Eugenia Martínez de Irujo. Does she feel declassed?
Never. Eugenia and I have a very beautiful friendship. I feel her like someone in my family and she feels like me too. When I have gone to places, I have always felt very loved.
At his first wedding, some designer He didn’t want to make her the wedding dress.. Isn’t that classism?
I did take that the wrong way because I have never asked for a free dress. They were the ones who looked bad, not me. It’s very ugly that a girl like me, normal, from the neighborhood, from San Blas, who is going to get married and can afford a dress because she wants to please her parents, her grandparents, doesn’t catch you for being who are you. I can say that Belén Esteban Menéndez has paid for all of his wedding outfits. Others, richer, or finer, or whatever you want, cannot say the same.
Does that hurt you?
Before Yes; not now. I am lucky that, later, I married Miguel, who is a health technician and a wonderful person. I am like soda, I explode and then I am nobody. But Miguel puts my feet on the ground and puts me down. When I make a mistake, he tells me, and I am very grateful. This almost year that I have spent away from TV has been very good for me, I have reset myself, I have meditated on things that have happened to me, what I have done well, what I have done wrong, and I have assumed them. I come with another roll. I know what I want and I want to be the usual Belén, the one at home, and if I’m wrong, let my people, my husband and my friends tell me so. And if I do it well, too.
There are women who, at 50, begin to feel invisible. Is this your case?
I don’t feel like that. I’m better now than I was at 30. I wouldn’t go back. The other day I went out to dinner with my friends, I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and, damn, I flirted, man. I have lost eight kilos and I look very tasty, very pretty, super good. I showed him my wedding ring and said no.
Was not necessary to. According to you, everyone knows her.
This one was Italian. Then I told my husband: “Darling, I flirted.” And he got upset. He gave me a high, I tell you, but I am a very faithful woman. My husband appeared in my life at the moment he had to appear. He values me as a woman. This morning he sent me a beautiful message [me lo lee y se emociona]. I get excited because he takes care of me, he cares about me, and the people I love the most. Any man does not accept it, any man does not accept that responsibility.
‘It’s not like we were Sálvame’ is an imitation of his famous phrase ‘It’s not like I were Bin Laden’. Have you requested copyright?
Well, I told them the other day, but I haven’t asked them for anything because my bosses, Óscar and Adrián, have never let go of my hand and I am very loyal to mine.
His slogans have been heard even in Congress. How does it stay?
Look, I live in a town called Paracuellos [Madrid], where I am super happy, and I talk to everyone. Well, the other day a guy from Canada who lives there told me, and I swear he’s true, he told me that he started learning Spanish with my program, and it seems silly, but it’s true. I have cousins in Australia who watched Save me and they pissed themselves laughing. Of that I feel very proud. I’m not an aunt who has a career, I’m aware of who I am and what I’m like, but I will always be grateful to my bosses because I got them.
Where does that verbal spark come from?
Look, I’ve always been very shy. When I ended my relationship with the father of what I love most, who is my daughter and who doesn’t want me to talk about her, I was ashamed of everything. But when I got into TV I had to wake up. And I think I woke up very well. I know that I have done things that have not been right, that I have been able to talk more than necessary, but I have talked about what is mine. When I have talked about other people it is because it was my job, and making a program from the heart is very difficult.
Do you laugh with your memes?
I love them and it really bothers me: “It’s not like I was Bin Laden”; “see you later, Mari Carmen”; “I’m getting bored”. Those phrases are mine, but I’m on the street, I go out for a walk with my friends and I get upset: one is fed up with her job, the other is fed up with her husband who can’t take it anymore, the other has four children and can’t care life. They say some things that amaze me, and I use some of them. But, above all, I say: “Damn, how lucky I am to have my people.”
Are you interested in politics?
I have decided that I no longer talk about politics because it has not been good for me, as everything is.
How is everything?
Well, look, it drives me crazy that they fight among themselves and do nothing for the country, instead of reaching an agreement and looking out for those unemployed families, who can’t buy school uniforms, or pay those oil prices, from the electricity, from the water, from those garbage receipts that make it seem like you have a hypermarket at home, damn it, with the bill that comes to you. But, sorry, I don’t want to talk about politics. Does not suit me.
THE PATRON
Belén Esteban (Madrid, 50 years old) rose to fame very young for her relationship and subsequent separation with the bullfighter Jesulín de Ubrique, with whom she has a daughter now in her twenties. It was later, however, that she reached the peak of her popularity, to the point of being called “the people’s princess” with her role as subject and, at the same time, object of comments and criticism on current social events and life. private celebrities on shows like Save me, from Telecinco, of which it was a fundamental pillar during its almost 14 years of broadcast and until its cancellation from the Telecinco schedule last year. Creator of phrases and memes widely used on social networks and in any informal conversation, such as “it’s not like I was Bin Laden” or “see you later, Mari Carmen”, Belén Esteban says she feels “overwhelmed” after overcoming turbulent stages of her life , which she herself reported on the air. Now, the new Belén, who she likes to call herself The landladypremieres It’s not like we were Shhh on YouTube and other social networks. She has no idea about the digital world, she says, but she learns quickly and says she has the enthusiasm and desire to learn like a beginner. She shows each and every one of her years of milli on TV. And in life.
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