A story marked by trials, convictions and infidelities. This is how we could summarize the relationship between Isabel Pantoja and Julian Munozwho has become the protagonist of the week after his death at the age of 76 following a long illness – for years, his health was so critical that, despite being in prison, he was granted provisional release in 2021.
Many famous faces have reacted to the news, but inevitably the spotlight has been turned back to her: Isabel Pantojawith whom the former mayor of Marbella maintained a six year relationship romancemarked by power and later, a stormy breakup (in 2009 she herself confirmed her separation in the pages of our magazine) which was broadcast from beginning to end by the social chronicle of our country.
HELLO!A fairy tale with an expiration date
Beyond its story of love, heartbreak and many things to explain, Its protagonists found their particular refuge in Cantora. The artist of Sailor of Lights opened the doors of Cantora to the magazine ¡HOLA!, when he was in a romantic relationship with Diego Gomez. However, in 2003 she put an end to this romance, just the year in which she began dating Julián Muñoz, who was then already mayor of an apparently splendid Marbella. Among the couple’s properties, there was also the purchase of a joint sale of the My Gypsy farm. But without a doubt, Cantora was the ‘symbol’ of consolidation between the two, since Julián became the first man to live there after Paquirri’s death. But the fairy tale didn’t last long…
“It was in 2003, on Candlemas Day on March 19, St. Joseph’s Day. But that relationship was not consolidated, I want to make that very clear, because he told me he was separated, but I didn’t believe him,” said Isabel Pantoja about the beginnings of her relationship with Julián Muñoz.
HELLO!
HELLO!Cantora, Isabel’s refuge
It is a farmhouse between Medina Sidonia and Vejer, on the well-known bull route, within the path of the white villages of the South. It is the family estate that Isabel Pantoja owns as an inheritance from her husband, when he died in September 1984, the bullfighter Francisco Rivera ‘Paquirri’. It has More than 500 hectares and 2000 meters builtwhich includes the family home, as well as several industrial warehouses dedicated to livestock and agricultural exploitation, stables for the animals, swimming pools… in short, everything that is usually part of an Andalusian farmhouse. The death of the bullfighter was not a reason to say goodbye to Cantora, the dream in life that Paco builtalthough at first it was difficult for the artist to see herself there alone.
“I could see the house above me, but then I stayed with it, and until today, it is the most beautiful place in my life, where I would like to stay once and for all forever.”Isabel told us. The house on the farm has two floors: on the ground floor are the living rooms and the kitchen, while on the upper floor are the different bedrooms.
“Cantora”, which is called Cantora because more than a century ago its owner was called Cantora, and this is what Isabel discovered one day in the municipal archive of Medina Sidonia, has been more than a house for her. “I know that my end is here, in this house, and for me I would retire tomorrow, I would never go back out there. But I also know that I have to keep fighting for my people,” told us. However, Cantora’s future is uncertain, because as various media outlets have pointed out, the singer of The dark one I would be looking for housing in Madrid.
Isabel and Julián consolidated their relationship with the joint purchase of the ‘Mi Gitana’ estate and the unexpected move of the former mayor to Cantora, the residence in Pantoja that Paquirri left him as an inheritance, which led to the politician becoming the first man to live there after the death of the bullfighter.
“What I like most in the world is coming here, to Cantora, to heal my wounds from combat like a healed lioness, and here I grow and heal, and I get back on my feet to move forward.” But, What does Cantora give you that its many other houses don’t? What is there here that isn’t anywhere else?
“It gives me peace, tranquility, serenity, beautiful memories, it brings me Paco. Sometimes I think about what Paco would have liked to enjoy with this Cantora of today, with his children, with his granddaughter… “, he tells us. Decades living in that estate, which everything indicates will close its doors… and its ‘owner’ already visualizes other scenarios far from there.
HELLO!
