The announced interview of Pablo Motos with Isabel Preysler did not disappoint. In fact, the host welcomed her and saw her off with an unusually long hug and a statement: “You are an amazing woman.” He wasn’t lying. At 74, Preysler entered the set in impossibly high heels (she walked with difficulty), an incredible face and a memorable blue look. And he managed to communicate, something she couldn’t do when she was still trying to be a television star. The dream she fulfilled, instead, was her daughter Tamara Falcó’s.
Before unpacking Isabel Preysler’s phrases, let’s say she wanted to sit at the panel with her daughter Tamara, another surprise for the viewers. Does this mean she is ready to participate in any television project at the Motos factory? It could be: during the interview, she admitted that she was thinking about retiring but that there was still a project she wanted to do. If there is one person in the media capable of convincing a star as elusive as Preysler, that is Motos.
Isabel Preysler’s First Time
Against all odds, Isabel Preysler spoke about her first adult romance, with a man ten years older, heir to a family of Filipino bankers and a playboy. “I was 18 and was madly in love. He took me in a small plane to his house and I couldn’t return, because it broke down. There my parents caught me and sent me to Spain.”
What She Looked For in Men
“Women tend to like men more the more interesting the women they’ve been with are, right? When a guy called me, I always looked at who he had dated before. That counts. If the women he has dated are interesting and attractive, you’re more interested. At least that’s how it is for me.”
Afternoon Teas at El Pardo with the Franco Family
Pablo Motos asked her explicitly about the following matter, one of the many anecdotes she recounts in her memoirs: “Is it true that Franco drank orange Fanta? Isabel Preysler knows it firsthand, as she visited the Franco family thanks to her youthful friendship with Carmen Martínez-Bordiú. “When I went to have tea at El Pardo, we watched the Nodo and the movie and had tea. His grandfather didn’t: he drank orange Fanta”.
The Preysler Mystery Exists
Not only is it inscrutable to the general public: Isabel Preysler acknowledges that even her children do not know her, although they will be able to through her memoir, where she says she recounts her life in detail. “There are things here they didn’t know. They think they know me. They think, but no. It’s not that I am mysterious, but it’s not that easy to know people. People think they know me and I realize that it’s not the case. Probably because I am more introverted, simply.”
I Didn’t Want to Marry Julio
“Julio was charming, full of life, super friendly and with a lot of ‘charm’. But I cried at my wedding because I had to marry while pregnant. For me that was incredibly hard because I wasn’t prepared for it and surely Julio wasn’t either. It’s not that I didn’t want Julio, but it wasn’t the right moment for us to marry. Doing it this way, precipitously, was what I didn’t want. I couldn’t believe it happened to me. Getting pregnant in 1970 was a tragedy, a drama.”
Isabel Preysler se mostró divertida y cómoda durante la entrevista con Pablo Motos.
She Was Never a Free Woman
The issue of freedom arose in the interview when commenting on the impact of jealousy in Isabel Preysler’s life: Julio Iglesias, Miguel Boyer and Mario Vargas Llosa were very jealous men. “They never allowed me to be free. I have had to deal with jealousy all my life,” Preysler acknowledged. About the singer she said: “Julio didn’t even want me to dance, not even with God. And I didn’t dance, not even with God. All his friends knew it. Julio was very jealous. We danced, him and I.”
Out of the Cosmetic Surgery Closet
“In the book I recount all the cosmetic surgeries I’ve undergone: a facelift at 50 and another much later. And I haven’t had any more. Well, except the nose. But please, don’t talk to me about my nose… It’s my torture. Don’t ask me how many operations I’ve had… All of that is in the book.”
A Nose That’s Very Difficult
Although Isabel Preysler did not want to elaborate on her nose surgeries, she hinted that she had undergone quite a few. Two of them were due to blows to the snout inflicted by her daughter Ana and, years later, her grandson Diego. On one occasion they grafted cartilage to reconstruct it and on another, a piece of rib. After having it done in Dallas, she discovered she could not smile. “They left me with a perfect nose, but no smiles. I didn’t realize until I returned to Spain. I had to film the Christmas ads for Porcelanosa and I couldn’t smile.”
She Defines Herself as a “Right-Wing Woman”
She dropped it when commenting on her relationship with Miguel Boyer, a socialist minister, and how his enemies used against him that she had a romantic relationship with him. “I was a right-wing woman married to a marquis that appeared in magazines,” Isabel Preysler defined herself. “Alfonso Guerra, who was Miguel’s enemy, certainly used it. Miguel always minimized it: he didn’t want me to worry. At home I was happy.”
She Was a Grudge-Holding Woman
Isabel Preysler acknowledged that she is proud of her daughter Tamara Falcó, whom she praised for her sensibility and her faith in forgiveness, as demonstrated by her relationship with Íñigo Onieva. “She places a lot of importance on forgiveness and wanted to instill it in me so that I would also learn to forgive. In fact, I have come to love Íñigo very much through Tamara. Now I love him like a son. I used to be more resentful, I admit. Now I have completely shed the resentment and it has been thanks to Tamara.”
