Portuguese actor and singer Vítor Espadinha announced this week that he will marry at age 87, tying the knot with Maria Matos, the woman he has lived with for more than 40 years.
Espadinha said that at 87 he feels as though he were 50, describing himself as healthy, happy and at peace. He said he does not need anyone except his half dozen close friends, his five children, his nine grandchildren, his former partners, and his current partner of more than 40 years, adding that the two of them will marry soon.
Ending years of proving the relationship
The marriage will do away with the need to formally prove the couple's common-law union, something Espadinha discussed in an interview with CM last year. He said the relationship had already lasted 43 years but that the two had never married, and that whenever they needed to prove they were a couple, they would end up having to go bother the neighbors for confirmation.
How they met in Cascais
Asked how he and Maria Matos first met, Espadinha laughed as he tried to recall the moment. He said she was studying medicine at the time and that he met her at a bar in Cascais called Yellow Submarine. She arrived with a friend, he said, and the two of them hit it off immediately, a connection that has lasted until today.
2011 police scandal
In 2011, Maria Matos was caught up in a scandal during a police operation carried out by Portugal's Public Security Police, the PSP, targeting several hostess bars in the Cascais area. Four police officers were arrested in the operation, accused of corruption, drug trafficking and extortion. Matos was the managing partner of Bar da Tina in Estoril, one of the venues searched during the operation.
