‘I wanted Roberto, but I ended up with Erasmo Carlos’, says Roberta Close

Trans models and sex symbol of the 1980s, Roberta Close confirmed that she had a romance with Erasmo Carlos shortly after meeting the singer. The year was 1984 and she had just turned 20 and became known in the media when she became involved with Tremendão.

“I preferred to date Roberto Carlos. I wanted Roberto, but I ended up with Erasmo Carlos. He was Tremendão (laughs)”, said Roberta when asked about the affair with Erasmo. In an interview with the podcast Papagaio Falante, by Sérgio Mallandro and Renato Rabelo, she also hinted that she was the inspiring muse of the song “Close”. The singer and composer, who died in 2022, aged 81, always denied this information.

Roberta recalled that she has lived outside Brazil for 30 years. “I studied very little. I had problems studying. When I started going to school like this [mulher], I said: ‘it can’t be done’. So, I learned to live a little bit, always separated from people,” she began. “I chose to live outside Brazil. It was political immigration, because I didn’t have the things in my country that I had abroad, like marriage, documents.”

She continued: “I always knew that I would pay a very high price for this. I had already left Brazil, taken photos and paraded outside. So, I knew that abroad there was another way of living, and that’s what I did. I already It’s been 30 years since I left Brazil, and I’m Brazilian”, he declared.

Roberta also spoke about her marriage to Swiss businessman Roland Granacher. “We’ve been married for 30 years. We met, he was very much in love with me, and I with him. We tried to come to Brazil, then we came back again. My husband is my biggest fan. He’s in America Now, he speaks Portuguese perfectly. In the beginning, it was difficult for us to communicate”, he concluded.