Juan Manuel García, winner of the first edition of the Telecinco reality show La casa de tu vida, has passed away at the age of 44. The Andalusian and his partner, David Cereceda, became the absolute protagonists of the program, which premiered in April 2004, and a benchmark for the LGTBIQ+ community at that time.
As reported by El portal de Cádiz, the reasons for his death are unknown, as the man from Chiclana had been away from the media spotlight for several years. However, many of his followers had witnessed his impressive physical transformation over the years.
After triumphing on television in 2004, Juanma lived through a financial nightmare that few remember.
Telecinco
Little remains of her relationship with David Cereceda. Although the couple managed to impress the audience and became a television icon for the LGTBIQ+ community, their relationship ended up breaking down, mainly due to the ravages of fame.
The love between Juanma García and David Cereceda ended due to an explosion of fame and walks around the studios, arriving at debts and, with it, having to put their house up for sale to be able to pay their creditors.
Juanma and David in ‘The House of Your Life’ (2004).
Third parties
“The prize had a value and we had to pay the taxes on that prize. The problem was that by contract you couldn’t sell the house for two years,” they explained at the time. The house in Chiclana de la Frontera, valued at 800,000 euros, generated a debt with the Treasury that led them to take out a mortgage, and finally to having to “sell the property badly” to cover the expenses.
This was compounded by Juan Manuel’s serious health problems, who gained a worrying weight of 150 kilos in 2006. In this situation, his problems with David only worsened, leading to a “traumatic break-up.”
It is unknown whether his premature death was caused by health complications.
He himself admitted that he underwent a stomach reduction operation. “I had the reduction done when my mother had to wash me. I was 25 years old and weighed 150 kilos, I couldn’t carry on like that,” he admitted at the time. What he didn’t expect was that the operation would end with a serious infection. “The doctors thought I wasn’t going to make it,” he said at the time.
Her life changed for the better, but she lived through “hell” with David, about whom she revealed that she had even received threats at the end of their relationship, that she called him “el Gordito” or that she had only been with him “for convenience, for a house”. García insisted that Cereceda mistreated her “psychologically” to the point of considering ending her life.
Juanma went on television to talk about his physical change.
Telecinco
“What he has done is the worst thing a person can do, mocking the misfortunes of others. I went through a very bad time and it has not been easy to tell it. But I have my family by my side and the balls to keep going,” he insisted on El Confesionario de Kiko, in 2006.
The last thing we heard about Juanma was that he was happy. He worked at an electricity company and although he hadn’t found love again, he was happy with his situation.
