Jerez de la Frontera woke up on December 2, 2023 with the festive air of a wedding promised to coated paper. The church bells awaited the solemn entrance of the bullfighter Juan Ortega and his girlfriend, the cardiologist Carmen Otte. However, what should have been a day of celebrations turned into a spectacle of astonishment: Juan Ortega, the right-hander with fine hands and a restless soul, gave the fright not in the ring, but one step away from the altar.
That escape, which many described as an impulsive gesture and others as a late reflection, marked the end of a 2023 that the bullfighter closed more in the headlines of the heart than in the bullfighting chronicles. Carmen, those close to her say, rebuilt her life with elegance and without looking back, while Ortega began to chart a new path, perhaps more serene, although no less surprising.
A new love and old passions
The bullfighter, who at 34 years old carries the aroma of the Sevillian albero in his eyes, soon found solace in another figure also marked by bullfighting: Isabel Lozanoa young journalist linked to the famous Lozano cattle saga. Granddaughter of the legendary bullfighter Pablo Lozano and daughter of Fernando Lozano, a prominent figure of the eighties, Isabel grew up among tasks and temptations. However, he chose communication as his own arena, moving away from the capes, although without denying his roots.
It was in May 2024, during a social event in Seville known as The Tempterwhen Juan and Isabel crossed paths. The connection was immediate, although both maintained the relationship in discreet silence until the fall, when the first images of the lovebirds walking through the streets of Seville began to circulate. Isabel, with her elegant profile and her passion for music inherited from her stepfather, the director Ramón Torrelledó, brought a new balance to the somewhat turbulent world of Juan Ortega.
The weight of a decision
You cannot understand Juan Ortega without looking at his career. Born in Seville in 1990, this Libra, the sign of the indecisive, the bullfighter emerged from a humble family and traced his destiny with effort and discipline. From the age of 9, when he entered the Amate Bullfighting School, until his triumphant afternoons in plazas like Córdoba or La Maestranza, Ortega was always a man of challenges. But perhaps the greatest challenge of his life was found in the most intimate area.
The bullfighter never fully explained the reasons that led him to abandon Carmen Otte at the altar, but those who know him assure that doubts assailed him at the last moment. Married life, like a brave bull, requires both courage and patience, and Ortega, that December, chose not to make the final blow.
Do I walk to the altar again?
Now, in 2025, we are hearing rumors about a possible marriage with Isabel Lozano and they do not stop growing. Although neither of them have confirmed specific plans, the relationship is moving forward steadily. While Isabel divides her time between Madrid and her work at the consulting firm Estudio de Comunicación, and Juan continues to live in Seville, the balance between their worlds seems more stable than it was in the past.
The question that many are asking is whether Ortega, after his famous scare, will face the altar again. But perhaps the answer doesn’t matter as much as the path. The bullfighter, who knows better than anyone the art of tempering and waiting, seems to be learning that in life, as in the arena, it is not always about winning the task, but about understanding it.
Statements that give many clues
A week ago we collected the bullfighter’s statements in ABCwhich gave some clues. The silence of an arena and that of an empty church have something in common: both hide a truth that only the protagonist can reveal. Juan Ortega, the bullfighter who a little over a year ago left his fiancée at the altar, still carries that echo, like someone who carries an invisible thorn between his cape and his chest. His words, often elusive, suggest that love and art do not always find their place in the same task.
That December afternoon, in Jerez de la Frontera, everything was ready. The bride, Carmen Otte, waited, transformed into a living painting of hope. He, accustomed to facing danger with temperance, succumbed to the weight of an intimate fear, less evident than that of a brave bull, but just as paralyzing. The bells did not ring and the bullfighter closed 2023 with a scare that resonated beyond the plazas.
The confession of a bullfighter
In a recent interview, Ortega acknowledged the link between his personal life and his art. “When you are not well inside, bullfighting does not flow either“, he admits with a tone of honesty that is disarming. The square, he says, is a place that does not allow voids: it demands all the passion, all the courage. There is no room for doubts, nor for internal disorder.
With the stoicism typical of the great masters, Ortega seems to accept that his sensitivity makes him a divided man. On the one hand, bullfighting, which connects him with the absolute, with a naked truth that he rarely finds outside the arena. On the other hand, love, with its emotional risks, as unpredictable as the animal it faces in each task.
“Bullfighting is a total dedication“he reflects.”And sometimes the only thing I have left“That dedication, however, has led him to sacrifice other facets of his life, leaving unanswered questions and hearts halfway, like that of Carmen Otte, who, according to what they say, has already rebuilt her life away from the bullfighter.
The altar as maximum proof
It is not strange that Ortega sees love as a kind of attack. The altar, after all, is a setting that does not allow half measures. There, as in the square, he faced his own fears and, in the end, chose not to strike. “It was a dark time in which I suffered and also made people suffer.“, he confesses, revealing the weight of that decision.
But the bullfighter does not evade reflection. He understands that his heart, accustomed to the rhythm of the cape, does not always know how to follow the beat of a shared life. What for others may be a refuge, for him represents a new challenge, as unpredictable as the bulls he faces every afternoon.
Between truth and emptiness
Ortega speaks about bullfighting with an almost mystical respect. “It’s like life: you are born, you die, and in between only the truth remains.“, he says with that philosophy typical of great bullfighters. In the arena, everything is authentic. There is no room for excuses or hiding behind masks. The bull is judge and executioner, a pure force that forces man to surrender completely .
Maybe that’s why love is so complex for him. It’s not that Ortega distrusts him, but he knows that feelings can also overflow. “I have seen companions deeply in love who were not capable of bullfighting. The heart does not always know how to carry two passions at the same time“, he confesses, as if those other people’s stories were, in part, his own.
The uncertain future of the bullfighter
Today, Juan Ortega’s name continues to make headlines, although he seems oblivious to the noise. His relationship with Isabel Lozano, journalist and heiress of one of the most important families in bullfighting, has sparked rumors about a possible new relationship. But Ortega, true to his nature, moves cautiously.
“It’s not that I don’t believe in love“, dice. “I’m just learning to deal with it.“His life, like his art, seems to be a constant search for balance between what elevates him and what binds him. Isabel, with her own bullfighting legacy and professional career, seems to have found a connection with that divided heart.
Meanwhile, the plaza continues to be the only space where Ortega feels fulfilled. There, every afternoon, he faces a truth that transcends fear, heartbreak and uncertainty. Perhaps, one day, he will find outside the ring what until now he has only found in the art of bullfighting: the peace that comes with total dedication.
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