RTVE president apologises to Marta Gómez Montero as she returns to 'Malas Lenguas' after live breakdown

Live incident and immediate fallout

On Saturday 11 July 2026, during the late-night edition of La 2's 'Malas Lenguas', journalist and collaborator Marta Gómez Montero abruptly left the set in tears. She accused the presenter, Jesús Cintora, of repeatedly humiliating her. In an emotional outburst captured on air, Montero quoted Gabriel García Márquez's novel 'El coronel no tiene quien le escriba', saying she would rather "eat shit" than continue enduring the treatment. She later explained she had put up with the situation "to pay the bills and for my children" but had reached her limit.

The images of a visibly shaken Montero exiting the studio quickly circulated on social media, prompting swift public reaction. Within hours, both Cintora and the president of RTVE, José Pablo López, issued apologies via X. López wrote that he was at the journalist's "entire disposal."

Political and parliamentary reaction

The controversy reached the national parliament on Monday 13 July, when López appeared before the Comisión Mixta de Control Parlamentario de la Corporación RTVE in the Congreso de los Diputados. He addressed the incident directly, stating: "For this management, the dignity of people is above any consideration. I deeply regret the moment our colleague Marta Gómez Montero experienced."

Dear Marta, from here I want to thank you for demonstrating with actions what respect for the profession means. Wherever I am, I will always count on you.

López confirmed that Montero would return to RTVE that very Monday "with complete normality," praising her immense generosity and professional stature. He noted that both he and Cintora had already apologised privately and publicly. However, the session also saw political attacks. The PP deputy Héctor Palencia demanded Cintora's immediate dismissal, calling the episode an example of machismo. López regretted that the opposition was using the incident to obscure the audience performance of La 1, which was in a technical tie with Antena 3 in the early months of the year.

Return to the screen

Barely two hours after López's parliamentary testimony, the same duo was back on air. At around 17:00, Cintora greeted Montero with a handshake and asked how she was. Montero, visibly calmer, told viewers she felt "reassured" by the president's and Cintora's attitudes and emphasised her 38-year career grounded in respect for the audience.

I am calm, comforted by the attitude of the Corporation's president, José Pablo López, and yours, and above all, by doing what I've been doing for the last 38 years: working with the respect we owe each other and, above all, the respect I owe the audience.

Cintora downplayed any suggestion of a staged reconciliation: "We keep working. Today you were scheduled. So there's nothing we prepared to captivate the audience." The handshake and brief exchange were widely interpreted as RTVE's attempt to restore normalcy after a 48-hour crisis that had drawn in the highest levels of the public broadcaster.

Workers' union demands protocol activation

The incident also stirred discontent among RTVE's workforce. The USO union issued a statement arguing that what happened was "not an isolated event" and that the corporation's own Equality Plan and Harassment Prevention and Action Protocol, negotiated with unions, are there to be applied, not kept in a drawer. The union stressed that 'Malas Lenguas', although an external production, broadcasts under the RTVE brand, is financed with public money, and represents the corporation to millions. It urged management to assume its responsibility and clarify the events, not to condemn anyone beforehand but to protect the people involved.

They are not documents to keep in a drawer nor to exhibit when convenient. They are to be applied.

Documentary 'La gran aventura' also draws fire in the same commission

The parliamentary scrutiny of RTVE that day extended beyond the 'Malas Lenguas' controversy. Junts senator Francesc Xavier Ten and ERC deputy Álvaro Vidal criticised the documentary series 'La gran aventura de la lengua española', presented by Iñaki Gabilondo, for a univocal and complacent perspective that, they argued, omits the disappearance of indigenous languages and ignores the imposition of Spanish in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia. López acknowledged that episodes three and four may have "sinned, perhaps, from a univocal perspective" and promised that after the summer RTVE would seek formulas to broaden the focus, possibly through a specific debate that includes views critical of the Spanish language's spread. He explicitly rejected any suggestion of censorship or the idea that the series is a whitewashing of genocide, and said the programme would not be removed from the schedule.