The Story of Maria Jimenez and Pepe Sancho
Maria Jimenez has been one of the most outspoken artists in this country. The singer never held back when speaking of her life, or the life she shared with Pepe Sancho, the man she married three times. The story of Maria Jimenez and Pepe Sancho was always surrounded by controversy, almost unacceptable today. The protagonists had so much emotional dependence on each other that, although they separated, they were reunited shortly after.
The First Union
When Maria and Pepe met, she was already one of our most famous singers, and he was triumphing with ‘Curro Jimenez’, the series he starred in with Sancho Gracia and Alvaro de Luna. She was a single mother of Rocio, a girl she had at 18 years old, of whom she never wanted to reveal the identity of her biological father, and he had been in jail for six months for driving without a license while carrying his then underage girlfriend in the car. Few months after they started dating, the Seville native proposed to him in Florida Park, which at that time was the trendiest place in Madrid. Pepe agreed, and the couple flipped a coin to decide where to celebrate the ceremony: in Seville, where the bride was from, or in Valencia, the groom’s hometown. Maria won, and the wedding was one of the great events of 1980. The actor immediately adopted Rocio, Maria’s daughter, who was then 10 years old, and gave her his last name. Rocio and Pepe adored each other, and treated each other like father and daughter despite not being biologically related. Three years later, in 1983, Alejandro was born, the only child in common of the couple.
The Third Union
But when he was still a baby, Maria and Pepe decided to separate … for the first time. Then, the controversy fully surrounded the separation: Pepe Sancho denied being an abuser but admitted to being unfaithful to his wife and having a jealous and possessive character. Only a year after separating, in 1985, Maria Jimenez and Pepe Sancho receive the worst news of their lives: Rocio, 16 years old, had died in a traffic accident. To spend their grief together and for the sake of their little Alejandro, the couple decided to give each other another chance, but this time taking things more slowly than the first time. The second wedding took place on February 27, 1987 in Costa Rica, where Pepe was then shooting a movie. During these years, Maria’s career was in a slight decline, so she decided to temporarily park it to dedicate herself fully to her family. Maria had fallen into a deep depression after the loss of her daughter. The third union of Maria Jimenez and Pepe Sancho took place in Nepal, in front of the Dalai Lama, in 1994.
