"I had never told it": Risto Mejide denounces the coercion he suffered in 'Operación Triunfo'

Traveling with Chester, he lived one of the most anticipated reunions of the last few years when Risto Mejide again saw his faces with one of the contestants he criticized the most as a jury of Operación Triunfo. Esther Aranda reappeared after 15 years with a very different life and willing to forgive him.

The Andalusian woman has lived away from music for many years and succeeds in her facet as a hotel businesswoman in Malaga. In addition to her professional success, on a personal level she is also experiencing a great moment after being a mother with her partner, so this interview seems to come at a sweet moment.

To avoid any suspicion, before beginning with the questions, the presenter wanted to clarify something: “Like all the guests at Chester, you have not received a single euro to come here.” She confirmed that he didn’t need to use this appearance to promote his business or his musical career either, since luckily he doesn’t need it right now.

The guest began by acknowledging that her time at the most famous academy in Spain was not good, although she partly blamed the harsh evaluations of Gala 0. The nerves caused by Risto’s evaluations and the difficulty of her next performance did the rest: “He got messed up.”

The publicist did not soften despite being in front of her and remained firm in those harsh assessments, going so far as to tell her that what she did “was bawl” and that “you were the worst.” In one of those performances he came to think that it was all a plot on the part of the program: “They are baiting me… let’s see if an actress is putting me there.”

Despite everything, the presenter of Traveling with Chester acknowledged his mistakes in front of the cameras: “I am not proud of the assessments I gave you, because in many cases I think I skated.” He could not deny that thanks to those controversies he began his career on television, which has led him to be the star presenter of Cuatro.

Despite what many might think, his assessments were never scripted and everything he said was of his own making. That freedom made him antagonize everyone, from the producers, the presenter and the public. That bad relationship led him to be fired and to continue to maintain a bad relationship with the producer.

“I was going for the format”, assured Risto Mejide, revealing that his only objective in accepting that professional challenge was “to destroy the program from within”. According to his point of view, the move worked out for him, since later it had to be canceled on Telecinco due to its low audiences and it did not return until 2017, doing so on another channel such as TVE.

After remembering that the program did not want to stop that controversial behavior and that even the public applauded him, he wanted to apologize. “So that there is no doubt, I apologize for any damage that may have caused you”, an apology that she accepted from the bottom of her heart.

The name of Virginia Maestro also came to light, since Esther Aranda coincided with her in that edition full of controversy. Mejide recalled that thanks to some videos she discovered that she “was being marginalized by the rest of the contestants”, which motivated her to continue her crusade against the talent with more strength.

It was his support for this contestant that made him antagonize the space producers. “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told you about that issue,” she announced. “There was another girl who was the producer’s favorite” and, although she did not reveal her name, she assured that “that producer” told her “Don’t you see that this is the one she has to win?”

“That phrase was said to me, and it was the beginning of the end of my relationship with him,” he confessed. “I understood that if they had signed me to judge, I had to apply my criteria in those galas”, and since then she began to defend the cause of Virginia until the end, getting, thanks to the votes of the people, that she was the winner from OT 2008.