• Salud Zeus, the son of Sara Montiel, reveals that he has "suffered depression"
  • Divas Sara Montiel: husbands, abortions, a thousand lovers and mysterious hatred with Carmen Sevilla
  • A Fondo Zeus Tous: "The jewels and works of art of Sara Montiel are safe"
  • Legacy The issues left by Sara Montiel unresolved...

The controversy over the motherhood of Ana Obregón through surrogacy returns to the present day other celebrities who, not being able to give birth to biological children, resorted to other formulas to be mothers. One of the pioneers was Sara Montiel, whose death at the age of 85 is a decade ago on April 8, because in none of her four marriages could she give birth to a child.

Born in the La Mancha town of Campo de Criptana in 1928 as María Antonia Abad, her beginnings in cinema were limited to secondary roles in productions such as Locura de amor or Pequeñeces. Determined to succeed, she emigrated to Mexico, where she was successful in some melodramas and served as a platform to land in Hollywood. There he became a shooting star for his short career, but his studied eroticism, close to that of Mae West, led him to share the bill with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster in Veracruz in 1954, with Rod Steiger in Yuma and in Two passions and a love with the tenor Mario Lanza, rivaling Joan Fontaine.

He returned to Spain through the front door, achieving an apotheosis triumph with the film El último cuplé, the highest grossing of the time, directed by Juan de Orduña, which was followed by successes such as La violetera, El relicario and many more. Also as a singer he left for posterity songs like Bésame mucho, Flor de té, Polichinela or Fumando espero.

Prodigal in love affairs, according to her fell into her arms the writer Ernest Hemingway, the mythical actors Gary Cooper and James Dean, the playwright Miguel Mihura and even the Nobel Severo Ochoa, her first husband was the American film director Anthony Mann. They met on the set of Two Passions and One Love, they married in 1957 and with him Sara was about to achieve her dream of giving birth to a child, but eight months pregnant she fell ill.

"I've had eleven abortions, the last one at 51. I tried to give birth, but I couldn't. I almost made it in 1959, with an eight-month-old belly, but I fell into my husband's studio in Los Angeles, and within four hours I started bleeding. I had a C-section, but the baby had died in the fall," the actress revealed. Sara was traumatized and with serious sequelae, an inflammation in the soft tissues known as Quincke's edema that caused her to miscarry when she was on tape.

However, recently a Mexican named Maria has appeared claiming that she is the daughter of Sara Montiel and Mexican actor Pedro Infante, something that no one believes because their resemblance is null and their only proof is a gold bracelet engraved with the name of Saritísima that she says her supposed father gave her. It is true that in his day there were rumors of romance between Sara and Infante, who shot three films together, although the actor was married to Irma Dorantes and was the father of seven children. Sara denied it. "We were not lovers, he was a married man and in love with his wife."

Sara Montiel and José Tous with Thais in 1980.GTRES

He was also credited with another son with Juan Plaza, a communist exiled in the Aztec country who, after his breakup, made life impossible for the actress who, they say, went to Hollywood fleeing from him. Rumor circulated that they had a daughter, given up for adoption. She denied it: "A lot of things are invented about me. If I had had a child, I would never have abandoned him."

Divorced from Mann in 1963, after a marriage of only eleven months with the Riojan José Vicente Ramírez Olalla, she met in 1970 the love of her life, the Mallorcan businessman Pepe Tous, with whom she married in 1979. With him she achieved her dream of being a mother, but adoptive, since that year they brought from Brazil their first daughter, Thais, and four years later, they adopted José Zeus, in Alicante. The scandal involved these adoptions, as the actress was accused of "alleged child trafficking", even had to appear before the Justice, something that affected her a lot. "It was very difficult and complicated, we have three lawsuits underway, one criminal and two civil. But even if my son comes from a sewer, no one has the right to say or find out," Sara said.

Thais and Zeus Tous, in an image from 2017.GTRES

Thais and Zeus are the only recognized children of the actress, who after dying Tous married 74 years for the fourth time in 2002 with Toni Hernádez, a Cuban 35 years younger, from whom she divorced a year later. At his death they inherited his mother's fortune: the attic of Núñez de Balboa, which they sold, plus seven other properties, works by masters such as Dalí or Barceló, jewels and belongings.

Thais (44), allergic to appearing in the media, graduated in Law at Icade and lives in total anonymity dedicated to the real estate business and to managing the assets bequeathed by her mother. Zeus (40) has followed in the wake of Sara and after making first steps as a model, he is focused on fitness, although his vocation is the song and this year he could premiere performing in Latin America. Both were devastated by the loss of their mother, to whom, as revealed by their son, they prepare as a tribute a large exhibition with films, dresses and other personal belongings for the tenth anniversary of her death.

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