“We have to be honest. Everyone knows that Cristina arrived at TVI [após sair da SIC, em 2020] and, at first glance, it was most likely that I would be left out. And I didn’t go. There was a bet on me.” Some four years later, María Cerqueira Gomes will be the protagonist of a documentary where, in addition to showing family life, the TVI presenter receives testimonies from fellow screen members such as Cristina Ferreira, Manuel Luís Goucha and Rubén Rua and also from José Eduardo Moniz. “someone who [a] “I saw him in Porto Canal” and went “to look for him there”. “They are two people who mark different stages of my life at TVI”, he also told El Observador. “Manel is important because he was the one I started with, Rubén is the one I work with at the moment, with whom I share a programme. [“Em Família”, transmitido nas tardes de sábado]and Cláudio because, in fact, he is my friend. It made sense that they were all in the documentary,” he added.

The production, by HOLA! Media and Prime Video, will be available on this streaming platform this Wednesday, September 18. “Maria” tells the story of the TVI presenter, showing a lesser-known personal side, her relationship with her family of eight siblings, with her children (the model Francisca Cerqueira Gomes and the youngest, João) and with her parents, Manuel Cerqueira Gomes and Marta Vieira de Campos, as well as her partner, the Spanish bullfighter Cayetano Rivera, who comes from a family with a bullfighting tradition. In the teaser for the documentary, María appears inside the car talking on the cell phone with her boyfriend, who is on speakerphone. And this is the only time that Cayetano appears in the documentary, as she herself confirmed.

Regarding the bullfighter’s brief involvement in the production, the presenter said that she believes her boyfriend would easily agree to appear in the content, but that it was she herself who decided to close the angle. “He would agree to join, it was I who thought it didn’t make sense. The documentary was about me, not about him and me. Maybe that’s why the negotiations lasted so long,” she said, laughing. “I don’t feel good about not being coherent. It’s obvious that he’s going to be by my side, he’s my boyfriend, but the documentary was about me.” Rivera has always been a regular presence in the pages of magazines such as Hola!, in which María also began to appear when her name began to be associated with that of the bullfighter, which may have aroused the curiosity of the Spanish about the Portuguese presenter.

Cayetano Rivera in Mostoles, Madrid © Getty Images

In an interview with Observador, María said that the documentary was something that was proposed to her, but that “it almost didn’t come to fruition” and that negotiations lasted almost a year until they reached a “comfortable understanding for both parties,” since he was reluctant to open the doors of his family life. “I wanted to [o documentário] “I would be honest about everything I have done during the almost 20 years I have been working in television. I have a behavior that I consider very linear, respecting my position regarding the most private, that is why I wanted to safeguard some situations here. I think we reached a good conclusion,” he clarified, also highlighting that some points were non-negotiable, such as the fact of protecting the image of the youngest son, who is still a minor.There were things I wanted to safeguard. João was one of them,” she said. The youngest son was born from the presenter’s five-year relationship with António Miguel Cardoso, president of Vitória de Guimarães, which came to an end months after Maria moved from Porto to Lisbon, to work at TVI.

The rest of the family members featured in the documentary agreed to participate with relative ease. “The person I was most afraid of and who I thought probably wouldn’t accept was my father, but he liked the project and thought it was something that could make a difference,” she shared, noting that the person who offered the most resistance was herself. “The biggest difficulty was me,” she said.

For Observador, María Cerqueira Gomes says that viewers will be able to see a little of the close relationship she has with her grandmother, Dulce. / Credits: Miguel Ángel

Regarding the documentary, the presenter highlights that she shows herself in a natural way, something she considers essential in a project that shows a more personal side of her life. “I only had a stylist when I was working at TVI, at a gala or at a public event. Everything else was filmed with my clothes, my style, my way of being. Many times my hair wasn’t even done, it wasn’t very aligned, because I wanted to show exactly what I am, a completely normal woman, with the logistics, the wear and tear, the worries of everyday life, but who, by chance, lives in an enchanted and magical world that is television. And I also have a daughter who is very well known and that’s it. I didn’t want to fantasize about who I am.”

In the production, Maria says that viewers will, among other things, “be able to enter her father’s house” and “see his relationship with his grandmother,” someone who plays an important role in the presenter’s life. It was easier for her daughter, Francisca, to appear in the documentary, who despite being used to the exposure she usually receives thanks to her modeling profession and social media, is not particularly fond of “seeing herself on television.” “My daughter was one of the few people who saw the documentary and really liked it,” she said, stressing that she simply “didn’t like her part.”

“She is 21 years old and it is normal, young people have many expectations and she is very critical [em relação a si própria]Francisca was born when Maria was 19 years old and is the fruit of the presenter’s relationship with the pilot Gonçalo Gomes, to whom she was engaged. However, the wedding never took place, having been cancelled days before the planned date.

María with her daughter, Kika Cerqueira Gomes © Instagram Maria Cerqueira Gomes

Maria Cerqueira Gomes spent 12 years at Porto Canal, where she made her debut in 2006. At the end of 2018, when she was presenting the show “Olá, Maria”, the presenter said goodbye to the Porto channel and headed to Lisbon, where she initially In 2019, she began presenting “Você na TV!”, in the mornings on TVI, alongside Manuel Luís Goucha, taking the place that Cristina Ferreira had occupied since 2004. “I think this documentary is made mainly for those people who have been following me for almost 20 years. For that audience that follows me, for those people who now watch me on television every Saturday… I think that these are mainly the people who will like it.”

Who is Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez, the bullfighter who put María Cerqueira Gomes’ name in the Spanish press?

Cayetano Rivera was born on January 13, 1977 in Madrid and belongs to a family linked to bullfighting, descendant of three dynasties that dominated this area. He is the son of Francisco Rivera, known as “Paquirri” and Carmen Ordóñez. Both lost their lives in tragic circumstances. The bullfighter’s father died in 1984, at the age of 36, after being attacked by a bull in Pozoblanco, in Córdoba. The medical equipment present at the scene was not sufficient to treat the bullfighter, who died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. His mother died after a heart attack at home in 2004, at the age of 49.

He is also the grandson of Antonio Ordóñez, great-grandson of Cayetano Ordóñez, known as ‘El Niño de la Palma’, nephew of José ‘Riverita’, brother of Francisco Rivera and cousin of Juan Antonio Canales, names all linked to bullfighting, a path in life that, although late, Cayetano also decided to follow.

In addition to Francisco, well known in Spain, Cayetano has two other brothers, born from his parents’ second marriage, Julián Contreras Jr., son of Carmen Ordóñez and Julián Contreras, and Francisco José (Kiko) Rivera, born from Paquirri’s marriage to the singer Isabel Pantoja.

According to Lecturas, Cayetano Rivera’s mother did not want her son to live in a bullfighting environment, so at the age of 14 he went to Switzerland, where he studied at a boarding school. He later graduated in Business Administration and later studied Communications and Film and Television Production in the United States.

He worked as a producer on several television programmes, such as ‘Elhost’, a programme presented by Boris Izaguirre and produced by Miguel Bosé (who was his mother’s first cousin). However, at the age of 28 he surprised everyone by announcing that he wanted to dedicate himself to bullfighting. It is not usual for a bullfighter to start his career so late, but Cayetano ended up making his debut on 26 March 2005.

Seven years later, Cayetano announced that he would retire from bullfighting, having participated in more than 250 bullfights and won several trophies. His physical fitness led him to success in other fields. Giorgio Armani, who was also the advertising image of Loewe and participated in promotions for Porcelanosa, bet on him.

In November 2013 he announced the temporary end of his bullfighting career, having returned to the ring in the spring of 2015. “The world of bullfighting is exciting and when it calls it is difficult to resist,” said the bullfighter, quoted by Lecturas.

Cayetano Rivera at the Las Ventas Bullring, Salamanca © Getty Images

Personal life and origins of the relationship with Maria Cerqueira Gomes

Cayetano Rivera married the Asturian actress Blanca Romero on October 26, 2001, when they were both 24 years old, in the church of San Pedro in Gijón, and adopted her daughter, Lucía, with whom Cayetano maintains a good relationship. The marriage ended in January 2004, supposedly because Blanca did not agree with Cayetano’s decision to enter the world of bullfighting, as reported by Lecturas.

After five years of being single, he found love again in the arms of Miss Spain 2003, Eva González, whom he began dating in March 2009. The two became one of the most popular couples on the social scene in the neighbouring country, appearing quite frequently in gossip magazines. The bullfighter and the model and presenter walked down the aisle on 6 November 2015, in an event that took place in the church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, in Mairena del Alcor, Seville, the bride’s hometown. From this marriage a son was born on 5 March 2018, who like his father, is also called Cayetano.

The Portuguese presenter and the bullfighter met in 2019, when María interviewed Cayetano at the Campo Pequeno bullring in Lisbon. At the time, they were both engaged: the bullfighter was married to Eva González and the TVI presenter was in a relationship with António Miguel Cardoso, the father of her youngest son.

It was at the beginning of 2023, months after the separation of the bullfighter and the presenter of the program ‘La Voz’, from Spanish Antena 3, when Cayetano and María were photographed together for the first time in Écija, Seville, as reported in the Spanish press. Since then, despite keeping a low profile, they have been seen not only in Portugal and Spain, but also on trips to Venice, New York or Greece.

Maria Cerqueira Gomes and Cayetano Rivera arriving at Seville airport © Getty Images

Recently, the two were enjoying a few days of vacation in the Algarve in the company of their youngest children. In addition, the daughters of the bullfighter and the presenter, Lucía and Francisca, respectively, have already appeared together and seem to maintain a good relationship. Both are models and very active on social networks, where they have thousands of followers (Lucía has 173 thousand followers on Instagram and Francisca has 890 thousand).

Since the relationship became public, María Cerqueira Gomes began appearing alongside her boyfriend in Spanish magazines such as HOLA!, whose associated brand, Hola! Media, decided to take a step forward and join Prime Video to tell the story of the Portuguese presenter, in a documentary that will last one hour. “Well… it seems that it is really real and that this is really going to happen! From September 18 you will be able to get to know me a little better, only on Prime Video. You want nerves!” wrote María in the promotional video, which she shared on her Instagram account.