The intimate environment of Mario Vargas Llosa revealed why he separated from Isabel Preysler
Close friends of the writer Mario Vargas Llosa spoke with THE COUNTRY and made known details that anticipated his separation from Isabel Preyslerwith whom he broke ties last Wednesday after eight years as a couple.
The first signs, according to the Spanish media, appeared in a recent publication. The text “Los vientos”, published two years ago in the magazine Free Lettersconsists of a narrative with biographical overtones that delves into the story of a man who is reaching the twilight of his life and shows regret for having left his wife for another.
Although for many it could be a simple story, people close to the Nobel Prize did not see it that way. At first, they implied that the text conveys numerous indications of the fatigue that the writer experienced after, at that time, seven years of living with the woman from the Philippines.
In some parts of the writing, Varga Llosa also seems to evoke the figure of his ex-wife and mother of his three children, Carmen: The character seeks to escape from a dystopian world and takes refuge in his old house, located on Calle de la Flora in Madrid, where he lived with his first wife..
“When we read “The Winds” we saw the clear autobiographical references and also the references to his relationship with Isabel, although of course he does not use her name at all”, explained a person from the writer’s environment in conversations with THE COUNTRY.
The same source stated that “he finished writing this story in December 2020”, so “the crisis with Isabel comes from afar”. He said he believed that it was not something “sudden or unexpected as was said.” “The deterioration of the relationship, the doubts, the regret, the dissatisfaction… everything was brewing a long time ago,” she remarked.
“Two people from very different worlds. They were incompatible. He is interested in culture and she is interested in entertainment. There is an abyss between the two ”, was one of the analyzes that had the greatest predominance among those close to him. They remarked with special emphasis that “he seemed to feel uncomfortable” most of the time.
Although friends agree that both tried to adapt to each other’s world -she was a journalist and presenter-, this ended up not being possible.
How the news broke
Magazine Hello! of Spain was in charge of communicating that the relationship between the journalist and television presenter and the Nobel Prize for Literature had come to an end. “Mario and I have decided to end our relationship definitively”Preysler stated.
The model came to Spain from the Philippines at the age of seventeen and was a partner of the Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, wife of the nobleman Carlos Falcó and, later, of the Minister of Economy, Finance and Commerce, Miguel Boyer, who died in 2014. A year later, Preysler and the Peruvian-Hispanic writer fell in love.
The two had known each other since the 1980s. “I first saw Mario in Saint Louis, Missouri, when I interviewed him in 1986 to Hello!”, recounted the journalist, who at that time was Boyer’s wife. “From then on, Miguel and I became friends with Mario and his wife”.
The romance became official in 2015, when the brand new widow and the Nobel Prize winner traveled together to visit the then Prince Charles of England at Buckingham Palace. Vargas Llosa had just celebrated the golden wedding anniversary with his wife, his children and grandchildren in New York. Once the romance with Preysler was confirmed, there was no going back.
