Singer, dancer and actress María Jiménez dies at the age of 73

the sevillan artist Maria Jimenez has passed away this Thursday at the age of 73 in the city where she was born, as reported by her family in a statement. In recent years, her health was very delicate, with various admissions and scares. The very personal and fabulous singer had a unique, unrepeatable style. The great love of her was Pepe Sancho, that he loved her, deceived her and mistreated her, as she denounced. Her great misfortune was losing her daughter Rocío from her at only 17 years old, a tragedy that united her with the actor for a while.

“With deep sadness and pain in our hearts, we bid farewell today to Maria Jimenez, woman loved and respected for her unwavering commitment to her family, friends, and admirers. An indomitable spirit, an overwhelming personality, a strong and courageous woman who fought against all odds beyond imagination,” her son said, Alejandro Jimenez, in a statement sent to Europa Press.

With almost fifty years of musical career, the singer, dancer and actress has published 18 albums, as well as acting in films and television series. Among her recognitions, she was awarded in 2022 with the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, awarded by the Ministry of Culture, and also the Medal of the City of Seville and the Gold Badge of Chiclana.

In 1976 he published his first album that included rumbas, tangos, bulerías, boleros, rancheras and ballads from Silvio Rodriguez, Lolita de la Colina and Amancio Prada. In 1978 she released “Se acabó”, whose first single became a hit in Spain and Mexico, thanks to the casual lyrics about a woman fed up with a situation of abuse.

During the eighties he continued recording and releasing albums. In 2001 she collaborated on the song ‘La lista de la compra’ with the group the mechanical goat that managed to reach the top of the lists of Los 40 Principales. In 2022 she published the album ‘Where it hurts the most (Sings for Sabina)’ which covers the songs of Joaquin Sabina

For about four years, the existence of Maria Jimenez He was in a wheelchair. However, her attitude was positive and she kept singing, laughing and trying to enjoy herself despite the terrible misfortunes she suffered in her life. He didn’t consider himself a star, although he was, and he remembered his humble origins when speaking to the media.

In 2013, the year in which the father of her son, María Jiménez, died she suffered breast cancer, which fortunately she beat. But five years later he feared for his life because of a bowel obstruction because of which she was hospitalized on several occasions. She overcame the problem but left touched and with mobility problems.

Her delicate health allowed her in recent times, however, to sing on some occasions; as she did to promote the album that she published just three years ago, in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, titled precisely Life my way.

Victim of abuse, created a Foundation against gender violence

In addition to her music, because she never stopped enjoying singing and dancing as long as she was able to move, in recent months she has been busy at the Foundation that bears her name, which she created to help women victims of gender violence. own Maria Jimenez she was a victim of abuse when she was married. The son she had with Pepe Sancho, also in charge of communicating his death, is the president of the entity.

Aside from her complicated marriage with the actor who died ten years ago, María Jiménez hardly knew of any other love affairs, except the one she had with a Sevillian rancher, son of a wealthy family, in which a good bullfighter stood out, father of her daughter Rocío, which was how María Jiménez baptized her. She did not want to recognize the girl or pass any money to her mother.

In the late 70’s, Maria Jimenez She was already well known and began to get along with Pepe Sancho, also very popular thanks to his role in Curro Jimenez, together with Sancho Gracia, where he played El Estudiante.

María Jiménez and Pepe Sancho fell madly in love and got married the following year in the Seville church of Santa Ana. Since then, the singer and performer have become regulars in gossip magazines. But their relationship was not easy.

The death of a daughter

I was already married to Pepe Sancho when Maria Jimenez suffered the worst tear of his life of misfortunes: death in road accident of his daughter Rocío, on January 16, 1985. The young woman was only seventeen years old. The tragedy united María and Pepe for a time.

María endured many and constant infidelities from the actor. But she always declared her love for him, even when she accused him of mistreating and hitting her. “He beat me up and after a while he asked me on his knees to get married again”, she counted. More than once, María caught Pepe Sancho red-handed.

Like when she came home one afternoon and found him in the marriage bed with another woman she knew. She kicked him out of the house and shortly thereafter she began efforts to divorce her. They reached an economic agreement, dividing up some properties. The son they had had stayed with her mother, but did not break up with his father.

Years after separating due to the untenable situation, they actually remarried in San José, Costa Rica, where he was shooting a film by Carlos Saura at that time, The Golden.

But the slaps, the infidelities, the jealousy, and the mistreatment by Pepe Sancho returned; and they parted again. They did a paripé years later, staging a new wedding in Nepal, basically to once again collect the exclusive of the magazine Ten minutes, where his close friend and confidante, the journalist Agustín Trialasos, always treated the actor and the singer very well. When Pepe Sancho died in 2013, María did not attend his funeral in Manises, but she did Alejandro Sancho Jimenez.