Since the appearance of private television and, above all, streaming programs , the popularity of the presenters has fragmented considerably. If Ana Rosa Quintana and Susanna Griso are currently the queens of the morning in clear competition with Alberto García Ferreras, how should the great Joaquín Prat be called ?
According to the latest report of the Cabinet of Audiovisual Communication Studies (GECA), last March, at the start of the state of alarm, the three spaces presented by journalists wrote down their historical record in one day. The AR program had an audience of 1,279,000 viewers (18.6%) on March 16, the Public Mirror figure was 907,000 viewers (18.9%) on March 17 and Red Hot increased its data until the 1,937,000 viewers (17.3%) on March 16 and 17. Again, the question: how should one nickname Joaquín Prat when he presented the contest The price is fair between 1988 and 1993 with an average of 17 million viewerson average? The emperor, king of kings, the almighty?
It was another era and, of course, another style of journalism. The elegance, poise and his gift for communicating Joaquín Prat turned into one of the major reference television.
Being born in Xàtiva (Valencia) must print character because after the bankruptcy of his father's glass company, Joaquín could not graduate as a lawyer since he had to roll up his sleeves to be an office worker with such a paltry salary that, as decades also happened to them then Imanol Arias or Antonio Banderas, barely reached the end of the month. For this reason, like millions of Spaniards, he decided to emigrate and wander through different European countries where he worked as an ice cream vendor, receptionist in a hotel, or dishwasher in a restaurant.
After joining Radio Nacional de España (RNE) in 1959, his career began to take off, but it was not until a decade later that his face would be one of the most beloved of that black and white television with the contest A million for him. Better (1968) or the Galas del Saturno space (1968-1970), together with his beloved Laura Valenzuela, and whose nighttime slot the polyhedral José Luis Moreno would inherit decades later. Obviously, his great success came with the just price or and his famous arm movement time shouting "A jugarrrrr!".
Lydia Grant (Debbie Allen), the choreographer for the series Fame, already said it : "You have many dreams, you seek fame, but fame costs, because this is where you are going to start paying ... with sweat." And theirs had sweated to become a national benchmark and, above all, what had arisen until achieving sentimental stability. Denmark became its territorial cupid.
In 1973 he married Anne McKiernan with whom he had two daughters, Anabel and Susana, but that relationship was bound to be the most shocking of failures. "I had a very hard time, it was hell ...", he told journalist Manuel Román, but luckily he soon found solace in the attractive Danish flight attendant Marianne Sandberg, whom he had met during a trip. Despite the fact that the presenter was still married, he persisted in continuing to see Marianne, who had to face her parents because they did not welcome the fact that her daughter's partner was 23 years older.
His was a clandestine love that circumvented Anne's denunciations of abandonment and the investigations of court officials to avoid a sin as frowned on in the Franco era as adultery . It was even commented that Marianne used the trunk of her vehicle to hide her clothes since she could not live in concubinage. While Joaquín was waiting for the official separation from his first marriage, the beautiful stewardess had to travel to Denmark for her first two children to be born, Joaquín Prat (1975), 'the boy Ana Rosa' who ended up having his own identity and who currently presents Cuatro a day on Channel Four, and Alejandra (1977), away from the cameras and happy with businessman Juan Manuel Alcaraz and their three children, Adriana, Alejandro and Amaro, who live in a huge apartment in Barcelona a few meters from the residences Tita Cervera and the late José Antonio Samaranch.
Finally, after obtaining a divorce, Joaquín and Marianne were married for civil reasons in Madrid in 1984. Later Federico Luis - the only one who is not dedicated to communication - and Andrea (1987), who works on the same channel as his brother, were born. higher.
Despite his professional commitments, Joaquín Prat was always a very present father. The traditional poses of the whole family on the beach or diving into the pool of their Mallorcan house are already as legendary as those made by Ana Obregón and Norma Duval. That island has always been magical for the Prat-Sandbergs, since Marianne was settled there and Alejandra married in style in the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca. Already in his Madrid home, everything was back to normal. The children studied and Marianne was always the benevolent shadow so that her husband looked splendid on the small screen. It was she who chose the wardrobe.
The intimate ones called him Ximo , Valencian diminutive of Joaquín, and they assure that he was a close, chivalrous, friendly, professional and protective type. In fact, the hostesses of The Fair Price always treated them as if they were their daughters because the marathon recording sessions gave for many encounters and confidences.
On April 6, 1995, while recording the contest How do you see it? on TVE he suffered a blackout that led to a two-month coma. On June 3 she died of a myocardial infarction at age 68. Its ashes were thrown into its beloved Majorcan waters. 25 years ago the small screen was dressed in mourning.
In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project
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