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He explains that she was simply a friend, a Japanese fan who came to see him, and almost scoffs at the media frenzy. “It’s madness,” he says, in essence. “Fake marriage, fake romance, fake romantic rebirth.” The truth, however, is less dramatic and far more poignant. He hasn’t remarried, and everything suggests that he never truly separated from Suzi in his heart.
This is where the title takes on its full power. After 18 years, what he finally admits is not so much a secret as an impossibility. The impossibility of forgetting, of shifting the emotional center of his life, of pretending that time heals all wounds. Enrico Maias acknowledges, in his own way, that the greatest happiness of his life has not been solely success, nor international tours, nor the love of the public, nor even the honor of having been perceived as a singer of peace.
His greatest joy was having loved Suzie and having lived with her despite the illness, despite the fear, despite the years heavy with suffering. It is immensely moving because it puts everything back in its place. The legend recedes into the background, the woman takes center stage. And yet, the story becomes even more unsettling when the artist speaks of fidelity, for this is one of the paradoxes that makes the character so human, and therefore so compelling.
Enrico Maias admitted to having had affairs. He spoke about them with disarming candor, putting forward a very personal conception of fidelity, more spiritual than strictly carnal. For him, letting the body drift into fleeting adventures did not necessarily negate essential fidelity, that of the heart, of attachment, of deep connection.
This distinction shocks some, amuses others, and troubles many. But it undoubtedly sheds light on something fundamental. Enrico Maias doesn’t portray himself as a saint; he portrays himself as a man who loved intensely while remaining fallible. He doesn’t disguise his contradictions. He almost embraces them as the flaws of a generation, a temperament, an artistic world where public admiration and private temptation constantly intrude upon relationships.
On one hand, then, a man who swears he has never stopped loving his wife. On the other, a man who admits to infidelity and redefines fidelity in his own way. A contradiction? Yes, obviously. But perhaps that’s precisely why his story resonates so deeply, because it doesn’t resemble a polished version of himself, because he doesn’t try to appear exemplary.
Because instead of glossing over his flaws, he gives them a name. And in this tension between the devoted husband and the womanizer, between the inconsolable widower and the popular singer who was surrounded by fans for so long, lies the very stuff of a dramatic destiny. True wrongdoing doesn’t always erase past mistakes.