Belén Esteban, 25 years of total fame: "Those who want to see me off TV are going to fuck around"

• RODRIGO TERRASA

  @rterrasa

  Madrid

• PHOTOGRAPHS: ÁNGEL NAVARRETE

  @AngelNavarreteC

Updated Sunday,26March2023-23:21

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• Television Amendment to the entirety of the Vasile era

The first time Belén Esteban appeared on television she wore a pale pink blouse, had Brenda Walsh's bangs, as if she had just left Ciudad Lineal 90210, and wore an embarrassment to die for. "Don't ask me anything, please," she pleaded with the paparazzi, sheltered behind the back of a bullfighter in sweatpants and Lacoste polo. "Really, don't ask me anything."

The scene is now 25 years old. Aznar ruled then, Zubizarreta was the goalkeeper of the National Team and on the radio the parting heart of Alejandro Sanz sounded.

Bethlehem today has another bangs, another face and another husband. No trace of the bullfighter or that modesty of that time.

A quarter of a century has passed. Seriously. There have also been a few surgeries, dozens of programs on television, millions of hours in prime time, exclusives and reality shows. Ambitions and addictions. A tiger called Currupipi, covers of Interviú, doctoral theses, live soap operas, crazy audiences, Andreíta and eat the chicken, polygraphs, dramas, parodies, weddings, horns and divorces, memes and gazpachos.

And here follows Bethlehem Stephen. Pink, still. It is no longer pale, now it is fuchsia, because that shrunken woman is now a typhoon. "I've completely taken away my shyness," she admits. "Believe it or not, I've always been a very shy girl, a lot, but I'm not ashamed of anything anymore."

Belén welcomes us on the set of Telecinco where Sálvame has been broadcast for almost 14 years. "Save me is the greatest television creation of the twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second centuries," she boasts. "Save me has changed my life."

Find out more

Contents.

Amendment to the whole Vasile era

• Writing: ESTHER MUCIENTES Madrid
• Writing: ILLUSTRATION: JOSETXU L. PIÑEIRO

Amendment to the whole Vasile era

Jorge Javier Vazquez.

"I give an interview to 'El Mundo' for promotion, because people read it"

• Writing: ESTHER MUCIENTES Madrid
• Writing: PHOTOGRAPHS: ALBERTO DI LOLLI

"I give an interview to 'El Mundo' for promotion, because people read it"

He moves around the set as if it were his living room. Greet the audience during commercials while posing for the photographer. Here he has sung, danced, eaten, slept for a while and even broken his tibia and fibula live. For some reason, behind her, on a giant screen, now appears a young woman lying like the naked maja in a giant ham sandwich with tomato. Do not try to understand it because almost nothing that happens in this program has an explanation. Neither does Bethlehem.

If Warhol defended that everyone is entitled to 15 minutes of fame, Esteban already accumulates 13 million minutes more. It is difficult to find a person so famous and for so long in our country, especially in an industry like television, accustomed to crushing characters in what lasts a break for advertising. "Do not try because you will not find it, there is not a phenomenon even similar," warns Óscar Cornejo, director of La Fábrica de la Tele, the producer of Sálvame.

"Belén transcends TV and when this is over she will continue," they add from the program team. "In 20 years people will wear T-shirts and sweatshirts with their face because they are already a pop icon in Spain."

This month, La Fábrica de la Tele made public for the first time the renewal of Belén Esteban with "a long-term contract". It was his way of selling certainties in the midst of turbulence. Something like announcing that "we are all contingent, but Bethlehem is necessary."

In 20 years people will be wearing T-shirts and sweatshirts with Bethlehem's face because she is already a pop icon

The TV Factory

The departure of Paolo Vasile from Mediaset after more than 24 years in the company, the restructuring in the company, the historical minimum audience of the chain and the attempts of Telecinco to redirect its image have triggered rumors about the end of Save me and perhaps the reign of the so-called princess of the people. "There are many people who want to see us out, but they are going to fuck because we still have a lot left," Belén replies. "The end is not near."

So let's go back to the beginning.

Belén is suddenly nervous, like in that scene in '98. "I'm not used to being interviewed in EL MUNDO and you've always given me a lot of cane," she complains. He brings a handwritten letter that he wants to read to us. It's a love letter to Save Me that her husband, a 35-year-old ambulance driver, has helped her write. On the way to the offices of La Fábrica, he sends her a message to reassure her and to wish her luck.

And one comes to mind that already mythical quote from Bethlehem itself: "Not that it was me Bin Laden..."

The letter begins: "Thanks to Sálvame, I have been able to develop a professional career that goes far beyond the character of magazines. I have learned to listen, interview, present and entertain millions of people..."

And here he gets excited and his voice breaks. So then we move on.

If you look back 25 years and see those first images of you on television, do you recognize yourself? That Bethlehem was... I look back and see a big change, but it's also true that I've always been a very normal girl. I still am. My friends are my usual friends, those of childhood and I move around the places I have always moved. I'm still the girl who went to the municipal swimming pool in the neighborhood of La Concepción with the whole family. We went to the river and we were playing cards all day, playing Parcheesi. She was a normal girl, a happy girl.What did she want to be when she grew up? I was studying to be a clinic assistant, which very few people know, but then I had the relationship with Jesus [Jesulín de Ubrique] and life changed me. Until then he had done everything. I had worked babysitting, ironing, cleaning houses... I even worked at a McDonald's.Do you miss anything from that Bethlehem? It is true that many times I wish I could go out quietly without being recognized, but I do not complain. Fame does not overwhelm me. I go about my normal life. Look, today I have been shopping at the Hiper Usera and here everyone knows me. You ask where Bethlehem lives and everyone knows where I live. Where Belén buys and they tell you where I buy. Where Bethlehem has breakfast and they tell you where breakfast. What a burden... No, no, it doesn't overwhelm me. I in my village am super happy.Have you ever dreamed of being famous? I never thought about it, it came to me. The first report in which I came out already changed my life.Weren't you afraid of that jump? I just didn't have a job... I accepted for money, I don't lie to you. I lived with my parents and needed to work, so I didn't think about it. It is true that you see my first images and they are not like now. I was a very withdrawn child, very cut. I was scared. Now I can say that I like TV, I really like my work.
When are those nerves gone?
Look, I'm going to tell you one thing, which maybe is a little hard to believe, but I swear it's true. Today, who has been 25 years, I give an interview in the Deluxe and I get nervous. But I have a system that I've followed since day one. I sit and think that I am with my usual friends, with my friend Mariví, with my friend Tina, with my lifelong friends, with my friend Paloma. And I don't see the public, I see my friends. I put that in my head from day one and it helped me a lot.
Has fame ever gone to your head?
Nothing. Never. I know who I am. I know where I come from. I'm lucky, but I'm a very normal aunt. People often ask me why I go on holiday to Tenerife or Benidorm and can go anywhere. But I love it. Benidorm is the best! The only bad thing is that I can't go to the beach because they eat me, but I go to an apartment with a communal pool and we had a blast.
Have you never committed a millionaire eccentricity?
I am not a woman of brands, but I have given myself some whim.
Not a Ferrari, not a private jet...
No, no, no, no, no... Nor does it reach me so much. I do usually invite all my friends once a year to a vacation trip.
To Benidorm?
No, somewhere in Spain, but I'm not going to tell you where because if not, we get caught.
Do you know how much money you have in the bank?
Fuck, I go into my account digitally every other day to see the receipts that have passed to me.
And 25 years later, can you say she's proud of her career in television?
The past is past, but I do feel proud to have been in Sálvame for almost 14 years. It's the program of my life.

The letter continued: "Save Me has given me the stability of a family. On a professional level, I have been lucky enough to give birth along with all my colleagues to a program that will go down in history. The greatest television creation of this century. Save me takes you down to the street, it is pure humanity and it is a mirror of our society. It is pure reality. That is why it generates morbidity and criticism."

Before I said that there are many people who want to end 'Save me'. Who are you?
Man, sorry, I read the digital ones. I read the news. I read everything. It is true that we have dropped in audience, but not only Save Me has decreased. All the TV shows have gone down. There are a lot of people who want to see us out, but they're going to fuck because we still have a lot left.
That drop in audience the note on the street?
No. I still feel very loved. There are also people who hate me, of course, but an older lady comes to me and tells me that the only company she has is us and it excites me.
What has he given you and what has he taken away from you?
TV has given me a lot, but it has also taken away a lot, not only anonymity. Surely it has taken many hours of being with mine.
How do you explain the success of Belén Esteban?
The key to success is that it's me. Be yourself. No one tells me what to say or do. I am Belén Esteban. Before I could be the ex of, but not anymore. I now have my name and my name is Bethlehem Stephen.
But there are more people who are themselves on TV and do not succeed uninterruptedly for 25 years.
Yes, but that's not my problem. It's their problem.

Legend has it in Mediaset that every time Belén Esteban threatened live to leave Sálvame forever, the company's shares plummeted. "That's what Vasile told me, yes, but I'm embarrassed to say it," she admits. Also that every marital crisis in Bethlehem, every aesthetic operation, every reappearance, every polygraph, triggered audiences to stratospheric figures.

The success of Bethlehem is the absence of imposture. As a folklorist would say, her great success is her truth.

Jorge Javier Vazquez

"The success of Belén is the absence of imposture," says Jorge Javier Vázquez. "On TV she's who she is and when you're like that, people buy from you or not. They bought her without her having to do anything outside her personality. As a folklorist would say, her great success is her truth."

2.685.000 personas asistieron a la ruptura con su segundo marido en prime time. 3.147.000 vieron su nueva cara en directo en 2009. "Operar a Belén ha sido como hacer bricolaje", contó entonces su cirujano. 3.386.000 espectadores se plantaron delante de la tele para verla sometida a un polígrafo por primera vez en 2011. Esa noche, Sálvame llegó a superar el 52% de share. Y 2.670.000 repitieron tres años después cuando Belén Esteban se sentó de nuevo en la máquina de la verdad para confesar sus problemas con las drogas.

Dentro voz en off:

-¿Desde tu rehabilitación has vuelto a tomar cocaína?

-No.

[Bethlehem tells the truth.]

Are you convinced that you would have died if you had not changed your life?

-Yes.

-[Bethlehem tells the truth]

-Have you had implants in your ass?

-No.

"[Bethlehem tells the truth].

I had a very big problem. But now I'm addicted to my husband, my family, to a normal life.

Belén EstebanPaolo Vasile said that nobody dies of success, that what kills is failure, but you were on the verge. I had a very big problem, but I don't blame success or my work. It was my fault. That's not where fame didn't take me, nor TV, I took myself. Nobody was forcing me to do anything wrong, you know? I did it because I wanted to.
Why did you decide to tell it?
Well, because I think I owed it to the people. And, above all, I owed it to my family.
He went on to say that 'Save Me' had saved his life.
My bosses and Jorge [Javier Vázquez] took me by the hand and took me to the best doctor in all of Spain. I will be eternally grateful. They helped me and I didn't let them down.
Is it the only time you've lost control over your career?
Yes, I lost control, but for the record, I never stopped working. He knew what he was doing.
Did he really see himself close to death?
Yes, yes. I am diabetic and of course I could have died. The thing is, I must have someone up there who loves me very much and wouldn't let me.
How do you remember that moment now?
I've been phenomenal for 11 years. The psychologist taught me one very good thing. He said to me: remember the image you had when you entered here. I don't like to see that Bethlehem, it affects me a lot. I asked my production company not to put images from that time ever again on TV and they don't put them on. Now I see myself now and I know I've done it. I love having picked up pounds, I'm funnier than na.
Still going to therapy?
I keep going, yes, because I am a very emotional person and they have to help me manage my emotions. I'm very dramatic. I watch a movie of grief and I swear I can lie crying all night believing that I am the protagonist. But I am delighted with my psychologist.
How many exclusives does she have?
He knows all my life! I tell him: if one day you want to fuck me, you go to the Deluxe and let's go...
What are you addicted to now?
Ugh, now I'm very addicted to my husband, my family, my friends, to meet them one day to eat, to have vermouth, to take a trip, read me a book, go to the movies ... I am addicted to making a life like everyone else does.
And to TV?
No. I'm not addicted to TV. I like my job, but it's just a profession like everyone else's.
What's yours?
My profession? Co-presenter... And entertaining too.

And then he rolls his eyes and bites his lip, as in the hundreds of memes and gifs that circulate on the mobiles of half of Spain with his gestures and his phrases. "I love them, I get disheveled of life," she says. "Sometimes my family sends them to me... The one in What do I do, super, do I kill myself? is very good"

Is there anything in your life that you wish you didn't know?
Everything is known about my life. A lot of people get overwhelmed, but that gives me a lot of freedom. No one can accuse me by telling me that they are going to tell me something about me because I have already told everything.
How many times have you thought about quitting?
Several times. Now I have a company of gazpachos, salmorejo, chips ... And it's true that many times I say I'm going to quit, but then I can't because I like what I do. Let's see, I'm not going to throw 15 more years on television, but right now what matters to me is my program.
Is there anything you would never do on television?
Surely there will be something, but right now I don't know what to tell you. Right now everything I do I do very well, honestly.
What you do is trash?
Sometimes we've done trash TV, yes, but everyone does it. I don't think Sálvame is a trash TV show. I love El Programa de Ana Rosa, but it also has a heart. Is that trash? I watch football shows and put my hands to my head. I love El Chiringuito, but fuck... the mother of God...
The new management of Mediaset has vetoed talking about certain characters in its programs and has developed a code of ethics that directly affects the content of 'Save me'. Do you feel censored?
Never. I have always been free to talk about everything.
Well, now they don't let him talk about Kiko Rivera, for example...
It's that it escapes me, what do you want me to do.
Nor can he talk about politics.
Man, I'm not going to talk about politics, but not because the ethical code says so, but because I believe that Save Me is a program of the heart and talking about politics is. To kill us it is better not to talk, do you understand me?
Years ago there were polls that placed you as the third political force in Congress if you had made the leap into politics. Would he not dare to lead a motion of censure to the Tamames?
I'm never going to get into politics. All I have to say is that I am concerned about unemployment, rising prices and, above all, public health.
Here you can talk about politics. Tell me what you think of the current landscape.
Well, I'm tired of everyone being giving hosts all day and not reaching an agreement. Ok?
Worse than 'Save Me'?
You can't imagine it. I can't even see it. Reach an agreement, fight for a country, fight for the citizens, lower prices. That there are people who do not make ends meet. Let's see, I am not Mother Teresa of Calcutta here, but we will have to help the citizen, I think.
Are you afraid to stop liking, stop being that 'people's princess'?
It is that when they told me about the princess of the people ... Let's see, in my life I put that nickname. They put it on me.
Who?
The people! I'm not complaining, they're not telling me to be a bastard, but I didn't say: I'm the people's princess!
But do you feel that it still is?
Well, yes... I do feel that I am still the people's princess. People love me and for me that's very important.
How much do you have left on television?
I don't know, but I have one thing very clear. I don't know when Save Me is going to end, certainly not now, but when it's over, I'll end up on television too. As long as I continue, I will be, even if I have to come with a cane.
And can't you imagine a 'Save Me' without Bethlehem Stephen?
No. In Sálvame I have to be for cojones.

The letter ended like this: "The future of Sálvame will not be written by the haters, nor by the critics who write about my program before seeing it. The future of Sálvame is written by the public. That they get angry with us? I also get angry with my mother many times. Sometimes I love her madly and other times I would kill her. To me that's Save Me."

According to The Trust Project criteria

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• Bethlehem Stephen
• Mediaset
• Telecinco
• Save me
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• Jorge Javier Vazquez