Rui Oliveira’s triumph: from gardener for rich families to the spotlight! How he went from being “Goucha’s husband” to shining on his own – The Mag

For many years, he was the figure in the shadow of Manuel Luís Goucha. He occasionally appeared at his side at events and, on rare occasions, the TVI presenter there made an exception to talk about Rui Oliveirathe man who had won him over on a Saint Anthony’s night and with whom he would later exchange alliances.

If this would change? Very soon, and perhaps it will have started with the emergence of sharing of more personal content on social networks. Suddenly, we started to see the now CMTV presenter cooking on the weekends alongside Manuel Luís Goucha or on walks around Alentejo, we heard his voice, his loose and charismatic laugh and from then on, jumping onto the screen was a leap. .

She cooked with her husband on his program, showing off her skills as a chef, but it was in CMTV that the real ‘boom’ occurred when leading, alongside Maya, the format ‘Night of the Stars’. Now, he is preparing for a new challenge that puts him head to head with his husband as he takes over the program ‘Morning CM’alongside Ágata Rodrigues.

But after all, who is the man who began to be known only as Goucha’s husband and in the meantime shines in his own right, having also become a success story on social media?

His life could, in fact, be a movie. Rui Oliveira, 68 years old, was born in Angola and comes from a large family, with ten brothers (however, one died). The family came to Portugal when the presenter was just 11 years old and, at that time, he started doing ballet or being a presence at Parque Mayer, ignoring that, a few years later, his life was preparing to take a new and big turn.

When he was 19, he decided to emigrate alone to Belgium. He packed a small suitcase, bought a one-way ticket and literally hit the road on a bus that would end up leaving him in Brussels.. He started working as a gardener for a “very wealthy” family for whom he would also end up doing some cleaning work, until the opportunity to wash dishes in a restaurant arose.

“The opportunity for a more secure job arose, which was washing dishes in a pantry. And, always with great interest, I saw what the cooks at that highly regarded restaurant did, and I learned how to cook nouvelle cuisine”she said in a conversation on her husband’s own program, adding that, two years later, she was already a chef and earned 300 contos a month.

THE SAINT ANTHONY OF THEIR LIVES

Rui Oliveira remained in Belgium until 1998 and it was when he returned to Portugal that he ended up coming face to face with Goucha, the man of his life. The two met at a Santo António night, organized by mutual friends, and the meeting went so well that, weeks later, and to Rui’s astonishment, Manuel Luís Goucha was knocking on his door. It was the beginning of a love story that continues today, even though it was not always an easy journey, as the CMTV presenter admitted in an interview she gave to her husband.

“It’s not easy to live with you, just as it’s not easy to live with a person with an exposed profession. They are people who have a very big ego and we have to get used to it and we have to accept, or not, living with that person”explained Rui Oliveira, at a time when he was not yet so publicly exposed. “There were times when I didn’t know how to act. It was the first time I lived with a man, until then I had only lived with women”, revealed Goucha’s partner who, however, admits that the balance is exceptional. “We had a lot of fun together.”

Initially shielded from the most prying eyes, over time Rui Oliveira began to appear alongside Goucha and occasionally on the small screen. Even though, I assure you, he never sought this media attention, appearing happier in the life he maintained in his Alentejo hill than with the spotlight pointed at him.

“I never had that interest (in appearing). Contrary to what people say, I never asked anyone for anything. I get on television because they ask me”says the person who started cooking alongside her husband and would later share the spotlight with Maya on CMTV, always under the proud gaze of Goucha, who applauded her husband’s gaining wings and his increasingly growing success.

It was like that in everything. They have walked side by side in love, in their passion for cooking and, sometimes, even in business, which has taken them to such unexpected areas as horse breeding, which they began to breed and sold for quite large sums. Now they are preparing to compete for audiences, with a lot of fair play, in a new phase that Rui Oliveira begins with humility and conviction.