Actor Miguel Ángel Muñoz mourns mother Cristina Blanco, the 90s TV psychic, dead at 61

A life in the spotlight and out of it

Cristina Blanco, who died on Sunday at the age of 61, was one of the most recognisable faces of Spanish esoteric television in the 1990s. She worked as a tarot reader and collaborator on programmes including 'Día a día', the Telecinco morning magazine presented by María Teresa Campos. Her name became linked to a very specific era of television, and she was a regular presence in the celebrity press, offering predictions and advice to a roster of famous clients.

That popularity faded over time. Blanco withdrew from television amid personal, legal and health problems, coinciding with the start of her son Miguel Ángel Muñoz's acting career. A scandal over an alleged fraud damaged her reputation, and she sought work far from the media. In recent years she lived in a care home in Majadahonda, on the outskirts of Madrid, where she received round-the-clock care after the amputation of one of her legs in 2024 and a subsequent myocardial infarction.

The farewell letter

Hours after the news broke on Tuesday afternoon, Muñoz broke a years-long silence about his mother. He posted a series of childhood and recent photographs on his Instagram account, accompanied by a long, heartfelt letter. "Querida mamá: Has sido una mujer valiente, carismática con muchísimo carácter y tremendamente pasional," he began, describing her as a woman touched by a magic wand, capable of achieving the impossible.

Your life has been the most vertiginous roller coaster one could imagine and you lived it to the fullest, too many times on the edge and many times without a seatbelt.

The actor, known for series such as 'El síndrome de Ulises', also addressed his mother's long-standing mental health struggles directly. He wrote that she had lived with a mental disorder from a very young age, one that was diagnosed too late. The condition was so complex to understand, and masked by her enormous social abilities, that even their closest circle forgot about the illness on a daily basis.

A complicated bond

Muñoz acknowledged that their relationship was not always easy. He thanked his mother for giving him life and for loving him, even if that immense love was expressed in her own way and he could not always reciprocate openly because of their shared emotional history. He added that he had always felt that he and his siblings were the most important thing in her life.

Thank you also for looking after me professionally and for stepping aside from the media more than 20 years ago.

The actor had previously spoken about this sacrifice. In a 2017 interview on 'Viajando con Chester', he explained that his mother had decided to withdraw "so that I wouldn't have to be asked these kinds of questions" and said he would be grateful to her forever. Sources close to the family told Semana magazine that Muñoz never left her alone and attended every meeting with her doctors to get first-hand information on her progress.

Final years in Majadahonda

Blanco spent her last three years in the Majadahonda residence, far from the centre of Madrid and the media spotlight she had once inhabited. Her health deteriorated significantly after a 2023 operation that led to the leg amputation, followed by a heart attack. She died discreetly, as she had wished her final years to be, with her son maintaining a vigilant presence until the end. She leaves behind a legacy marked by television exposure, public retreat, and a very quiet final chapter, far from the popularity that once made her one of the most recognisable names in Spanish television esotericism.