“There are many couples who love each other but do not like each other, Juan and I still like each other, otherwise we would no longer be together,” says the presenter
This Saturday a month ago, Nuria Roca turned 50 years old. “I have always been a strong advocate of saying age. And I still am, although I confess that now the figure has impressed me. But once assumed, I am delighted », affirms the presenter with her usual self-confidence. His fifties also caught him at a good time. Before traveling to New York at Easter, she received a barrage of congratulations for replacing Pablo Motos (then sick with covid) at the head of ‘El Hormiguero’. Added to this is her theatrical play with Antonia San Juan, ‘The Great Depression’, which remains on the bill on weekends at the Rialto Theater in Madrid.
Directed by Félix Sabroso, Nuria and Antonia on stage are two “friends-enemies” in the middle of the crisis of the fifties. In real life, however, they feel like sisters. «We did not know each other, but we fit perfectly from the first coffee. Despite my experience in direct television, which always helps, I owe my security on stage above all to Antonia”, Nuria concedes.
Marta, her character, has just come out of a suicide attempt, something unthinkable for this Valencian. “I am sickly optimistic,” she-she proclaims. I am absolutely frustrated by the depression, I do not contemplate the slump, I throw ‘forward’. Although I confess that with age I am learning to stop a little and allow myself to be pissed off or melancholy from time to time». As she showed on her Instagram account, the presenter celebrated her birthday in a Madrid restaurant with her father, who traveled from Valencia (“my mother could not attend”), her husband, Juan del Val, and their three children. Born in Moncada, in the Valencian Huerta Norte, Nuria Roca Granell came into the world in a large family of uncles and cousins, but her parents separated when she and her sister were still very young. “I was not traumatized at all. On the contrary, it seemed normal to me that they lived in different houses. Also, my parents have always gotten along very well. So much so that after 45 years apart they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.
A technical architect by training and addicted to home renovations, Nuria has two sisters and a brother (two of them on her father’s side) and ensures that the four of them get along very well. «In my house there has been a lot of respect and affection for the family nucleus and it is something that I try to apply now to my family». As a child, she is remembered as being too responsible. “Over time I’ve realized that she was sometimes more responsible than my own parents,” she confesses with a laugh.
Mother of three teenagers
Today, the mother of three teenage children, Nuria admits that «I cannot complain about how they turned out. Although they love to go out with their friends, they still really enjoy their time at home with us and I appreciate that.” That yes, the children of Nuria and Juan del Val spend a lot of the media pull of their famous parents… «Just yesterday we told them something about the ‘El Hormiguero’ gathering and they jumped at us: ‘Ah, but have you had a gathering today? ?’ Anyway, heh, heh… I know that deep down they are proud of what we do».
A coincidence crossed the life of the famous presenter to the then bullfighting chronicler Juan del Val and they have been together for more than twenty years. “I have a lot of respect for loneliness, and in fact in terms of a couple I have never been alone,” admits Roca. But it is a stage that everyone has to go through and I suppose that one day it will be my turn. If I’m still with Juan today it’s because I’m super happy with him. There are many couples who stay together for comfort. They love each other but they don’t like each other and we still absolutely like each other. The day that does not happen we will stop being together. But today we understand each other very well and we have a very easy coexistence ».
Sharing personal and professional life is not easy for anyone, even less so for two people who share their work in front of a camera. But Nuria and Del Val seem to have it figured out. «The secret to not confuse television and private life is not to be too aware of ourselves -clarifies the presenter-. Neither do we act in a predetermined way nor have we drawn red lines. I address Juan as if we were at home and he addresses me as well. Getting involved with each other is part of our way of being and our relationship. Everything can be treated with humor as long as there is a base of respect and we have a lot of respect and admiration for each other. There is much truth in what we tell ourselves. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t work.”
#sickly #optimistic