After complaints of sexual harassment and abuse of power, Don Francisco returns to Univisión

• After complaints of sexual harassment and abuse of power, Don Francisco returns to Univisión.
• The Chilean host, who was in charge of the Sábado Gigante show for more than five decades, presented his book «With a desire to live, Memories».
• Users compare him with Enrique Guzmán, who was accused by his granddaughter Frida Sofía of having “groped” her when she was 5 years old.

After complaints of sexual harassment and abuse of power, the popular Chilean host Don Francisco, who was in charge of the Sábado Gigante show for more than 5 decades, returns to Univisión and users compare him with the singer Enrique Guzman.

It should be remembered that several years ago Mario Kreutzberger, the host’s real name, was accused by the Mexican model Ana Isabel Gómez of having sexually harassed her, although it is said that they reached an economic agreement. Years later, more accusations of abuse of power and harassment were made.

Don Francisco returns to Univision

Through the social media of the Despierta América program on the Univisión network, you can see the moment when the announcer Javier Romero welcomes Don Francisco, just as he did for 25 years on Sábado Gigante.

But what no one counted on was the criticism that would be present: «Be careful and he starts to touch the presenters», «That is another Enrique Guzmán, Chabelo, Raúl Velasco and others, just investigate now that gossip is fashionable of the past ”(TO WATCH THE VIDEO CLICK HERE).

A stroke of nostalgia

But not all were accusations for Mario Kreutzberger, since after Javier Romero welcomed him and both Alan Tacher and Karla Martínez received him in the study of Despierta América, the reactions of the users did not take long to be present:

«Just listening to it brings me back to my childhood, how nostalgic it gives me», «It reminded me of my great grandmother, those times were wonderful», «I went back to my childhood when I saw Saturday Giant at my grandparents’ house», «Honor to whom he deserves it».

There were claims for Univision

An Internet user was not left with the desire to make a strong claim to the television network, who received a visit from Don Francisco after complaints of sexual harassment and abuse of power: “How has Univisión lost so much with them (Don Francisco and Javier Romero) because they were very good, I need them ”.

“He is missed on television”, “How nostalgic”, “You want to cry, excellent Don Francisco”, “Uff, a trip to my childhood”, “How beautiful to listen to Javier and see Don Francisco, I still don’t understand why a program so familiar and successful has ended, now Saturdays are the same for me at Univision ”.

Don Francisco had «unseemly behavior» in the past

According to journalist Laura Landaeta, Don Francisco was a «pioneer» of sexual harassment on television in the 1980s. In addition to the Mexican model Ana Isabel Gómez, the Argentine singer Nanci Guerrero accused the Chilean driver of having «unseemly conduct.»

But that would not be all, since a woman named Rosa Mundaca, who was a minor when she met him, accused him, after having sex, of having a child and not taking care of him, even going to court. All a scandal.

Francisca with Don Francisco

“Honored to be able to receive from the hands of Don Francisco his book With desire to live. memories, ”wrote Francisca, one of the hosts of the Univision program Despierta América and who is one weeks away from becoming a mother.

«That wrapped tamale looks very bad, poor Don Francisco, what he has to put up with, he had to hug the pig from the program», «That Pancha hopefully she will be an example for other pregnant women of how not to dress in pregnancy, everything is fatal. Take note, girls, so that you are not made fun of by friends and acquaintances ”, some users expressed when they saw this image.

Don Francisco and his «will to live»

The stillness of the pandemic led Don Francisco to reflect on his life and career and to write a book on «the last path of his existence»: With a desire to live. When he turns 80, the emblematic Chilean television presenter, whose real name is Mario Kreutzberger, recalls his beginnings on the screen in 1962, his consolidation on Channel 13 with Sábado Gigante and his subsequent international success on Univision.

Also, through an exhaustive investigation, he reconstructs his father’s arrest in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1938 and his odyssey to emigrate to Chile, something he barely learned about last year, because like many Jewish Holocaust survivors, his father rarely wanted to talk about it and the information that Don Francisco had was wrong.

You feel «somewhat disoriented»

In an introduction, he admits to feeling «somewhat disoriented» now that he doesn’t fill his days producing his show. Sábado Gigante went off the air in 2015 and since then its popular host has appeared sporadically on the screen: “I don’t know very well what I am going to spend the hours on, how I am going to feel in this new stage, and how I will adapt to the inevitable chronological changes imposed by life ”, he writes.

Throughout almost 400 pages, he gives his opinion on American presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, and their relationship with immigration, recalls what was his last Giant Saturday and even opens up about his first experience with a psychiatrist to whom the last year in times of pandemic.

Don Francisco talks about almost everything in his book

In a chapter titled Public Opinion, he talks about how fame has its benefits and drawbacks and even addresses the demand for paternity he faced in 2011, but does not directly refer to the allegations of sexual harassment and abuse made by Chilean journalist Laura Landaeta in his 2016 book, Don Francisco: Unauthorized Biography of a Giant.

In a televised interview in April on the program De tú a tú on Channel 13 in Chile, he replied that among the most difficult moments of his career were «all these demands that I have ever suffered … (which) have been hard for my family.» and assured that «no demand that they made to me had any basis».

An outstanding trajectory

With desire to live is Don Francisco’s fourth book after Who am I (1987), Between the sword and TV (2002) and The first 18 years of Sábado Gigante, «which, more than a book, was almost a magazine» , he said in a recent interview. Published by the Aguilar label of Penguin Random House in Chile, Mexico and the United States, it is also available as an audiobook narrated by the author himself.

In a telephone interview from Miami, Don Francisco talked about his life after TV, his impression when he learned the true story of his father and his main current concern: the future of Telethon de Chile, which since 1978 supports thousands of children and young people with disabilities and who has served as a model for other countries.

Don Francisco suffered in the pandemic

“There are so many new things that happened to me in this pandemic year. For example, almost at the end of the book I join a psychiatrist. I had never talked to a psychiatrist! I felt that I had the need to connect with a person to see how I ordered my new life ”.

“For 57 years I worked daily with my mind dedicated only to television. That was my job, my job with which I got up and went to bed, and suddenly I was left alone in the house meditating. Well, since I had never spoken to a psychiatrist, the psychiatrist makes me think about things that I never thought about and that opens my mind. Unfortunately, maybe I start talking to the psychiatrist near the end of the book, that’s why I only incorporate it at the end ”(With information from AP).

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