Valeria Valenssa, Darlene Glória, ‘Ronaldinha’ and more: women who exchanged fame for faith

In the past, they achieved fame, money and success, but, apparently, they felt that something was missing in their lives. For some actresses, models, dancers and media personalities who revealed their talents in music, at Carnival, on television or even in men’s magazines, the spotlight is part of a distant past.

Today they have something in common: religion. They are famous people who left their notoriety aside in the name of faith.

As a kind of “divine calling”, they decided to end their careers or, in some cases, pause them, in search of redemption. Conversion can be something very individual, whose motivation varies greatly, however, they followed a path to an inner fulfillment that artistic life seems not to have brought them.

THE SAMBODROMO GAVE PLACE TO THE CHURCH

Among the muses of the Rio Carnival —whether queens or drum godmothers, one of the most prominent positions in samba schools—, for some of them, the reality is currently different. With much more clothes and devotion.

Associated with her performance as the seductive character Globeleza for many years, Valeria Valenssa, 52, enchanted the country in Rede Globo’s carnival vignette for more than a decade. She also shone in Sapucaí in its heyday, but today she prefers to dedicate herself to worship in a church in Barra da Tijuca, west of Rio.

The conversion came in 2005 after a difficult period. “I had a severe depression, shortly afterwards Globo had dismissed me, I was with my two young children, and it was at that moment that I had this true encounter with God”, he reported, over the phone, to F5.

When she was invited by a couple of pastor friends to watch the testimony of former racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi, model Ângela Bismarchi, 57, was in the role of drum queen of the Serrano Empire. There, she concluded that she did not belong in the middle of the profane party. “I was at my peak when I decided to leave Carnival and the secular world,” she recalls, who became known nationally for her countless plastic surgeries — not even she knows for sure how many she underwent.

Bismarchi says that from then on he began studying the gospel and attending services, where he began to have a new outlook on life. “I saw myself in several characters from the Bible, like a sinful woman, who used sensuality during Carnival, in magazines [masculinas]that touched me a lot, I didn’t want that for myself anymore, and I decided to give up everything”, he says.

Converted 12 years ago, she remembers the difficult times she went through with the death of her parents, sister, brother and her husband Ox Bismarchi (murdered during a robbery at the couple’s home in December 2002). However, she explains that it was not these losses that led to her conversion, but rather the beginning of biblical studies.

Faith, says Ângela, was her foundation for dealing with the death of her son Igor Filgueiras in 2022. “I miss her deeply, but I have peace in my heart because God comforts me. In these difficult times I went through, my sister took her life because He didn’t find a way out when he was in trouble.”

FROM STAGES TO CULTS

Addressing conversion also means remembering the past, something that can still be a taboo for those who once had an image linked to sensuality. The former dancer of the Bahian group É o Tchan Débora Brasil, 53, found fame in 1995 alongside Carla Perez.

With sensual choreography and songs with double meanings, the brunette and blonde from Tchan, as they were known, were very successful, especially Carla. An evangelical for 22 years, Débora also declares herself a missionary and participates in services in churches across the country.

Coincidences of fate, Carla also joined the evangelical religion 12 years ago and, since 2016, has lived with her family in Florida, in the United States. Wanted by F5 to comment on the matter, Carla did not return contact; Débora’s secretary informed her that she couldn’t speak either. The same happened with actress Karina Bacchi, on the cover of a 2006 edition of Playboy in which, during the shoot, she showed something new to many people: a genital piercing.

Bacchi was baptized in an evangelical church in mid-2022 and has publicly admitted that the photos are her biggest regret in her life. To the F5the artist’s publicist said that she was busy recording and could not respond to the interview request.

‘I AM BLESSED BY GOD, NOBODY IS FREE, WE ARE ALL SINNERS’

Long before the success of É o Tchan, Regininha Poltergeist, 53, drove the male audience crazy at Fausto Fawcett’s shows in the hellholes of Copacabana, in 1991. “Amen, Regininha!”, shouted in chorus the macharada present at the sensual dance shows, always with a hint of sadomasochism.

Invitations to pose nude were quick to arrive. There were around 15 naked shoots for various magazines. In addition, she worked in cinema and TV, but when there was a shortage of work, she surrendered to erotic films in 2005, revealing that she did not know how to manage her fee of R$400,000 at the time: “I paid for an apartment in Barra da Tijuca, but I couldn’t buy it, I helped pay my parents’ past INSS and supported myself for a long time with my son”, he says.

The end of her marriage was one of the reasons that led her to seek new paths in faith, in 2008. “I was married, I suffered several physical and verbal attacks, and other problems, I needed a change in life in general.” Since then she has been to a few churches, but admits that financial difficulties still persist. She has managed as best she can by selling clothes and giving therapeutic massages.

During the conversation, held in a bookstore in downtown Rio, she let slip that she has also been selling adult content (nudes) on WhatsApp as a way to improve her income, which is currently meager. But she says that she plans to rent a commercial space soon to dedicate herself full-time to shiatsu, as she did last year — despite the ulterior motives of some clients, largely due to her media past, according to her.

Another who also put her career aside was veteran actress Darlene Glória. After several ups and downs in his personal life and a deep depression in the 1970s, the star of the film “Every Nudity Will Be Punished” (1973) converted to the evangelical religion at that time.

Years later, he resumed his artistic life after a long period living in the United States. Back in Brazil in 1997, she made soap operas and films. Her last work was in the cinema, in “Beiço de Estrada”, by Eliezer Rolim, from 2018. Darlene, 82, has lived in prison for 21 years in Teresópolis, in the mountainous region of Rio. She chose to remain silent when contacted by phone by the reporter .

‘I HAD AN PROPOSAL TO DO PLUS SIZE PORN, THE DEVIL DOESN’T GIVE UP’

After a brief relationship with former player Ronaldo Fenômeno in 1996, Viviane Brunieri, 48, from São Paulo, grabbed every opportunity that arose. The following year, at the age of 20, she was on the cover of Playboy and, soon after, she joined the musical group As Ronaldinhas, alongside Nadya França; the duo was a constant presence on SBT’s Sunday programs.

After the success came the controversies involving erotic films, addiction to methamphetamine, alcohol and prostitution. Redemption, as she says, came with her conversion in 2009, when she had a “vision” in a hotel room after using illicit substances with a businessman in Porto Alegre.

“I woke up, saw the money at the head of the bed, I was alone and started to hallucinate, I saw several presenters [de TV] saying ‘ex-Ronaldinha is found dead in a motel’, that would be the end of me”. After the omen, she returned to São Paulo and decided to seek help. She admitted herself to a clinic to treat her addiction.

“That was the turning point, that’s when I decided to establish myself in the ways of the Lord, because if not, I could even leave an inheritance for my children, but never a legacy”, he said, by telephone, directly from Japan, where he is carrying out church commitments.

The road to liberation was arduous, she recalls. According to Viviane, it was nine years of “many obstacles” before she was able to convert definitively. “I couldn’t establish myself, I went to church, we had a cell at Carla Perez’s house, several artists participated, Mara Maravilha helped me a lot, but I couldn’t give up [às drogas e à prostituição]and the gospel is renunciation”, she says, attributing these setbacks to the environment in which she was inserted, an environment of parties and partying.

Today, Brunieri considers himself a new person. Graduated in theology, she is also a missionary, and says she got rid of all the assets she acquired in other times: land, an imported car and money, a lot of money. “Almost every day I have to say ‘no’, I’ve already had an offer to make a plus size porn film, so I say that the devil doesn’t give up and, with every ‘no’ said, I understand that it’s another day that I’ve won”, she reveals, who is a partner in a paving company in Japan and mother of two children, a 21-year-old boy and a 17-year-old teenager.

REGRETS AND VANITIES

For Ângela Bismarchi, there is no conversion without regret. “I regret taking nude photos, I have no desire to return to Carnival or expose myself, I left the wrong practices, but not the artistic world”, says she, with a doctorate in ministry and a bachelor’s degree in theology. Known for her serial aesthetic procedures, some in more hidden parts of her anatomy, she also gives lectures and testimonies in churches.

Unlike Bismarchi, Valenssa said she has no regrets. “I don’t regret anything at all, everything I did was very planned, and I did it because God allowed it to be that way. I think I have a beautiful story.”

Regininha, in turn, only regrets an event that occurred in her youth. “I had an abortion when I was 17, I regret doing it, just remembering it makes me feel sad, I’ve already asked God for forgiveness, even so it’s hard to forget”, she recalls. Viviane also shares a similar feeling, “I regret the abortions I had, it was the beginning of an abyss, it caused me a lot of trauma, and I also regret the films [adultos]I did it for money to make some dreams come true”, he says.

When asked whether they are happier today compared to their past in the spotlight, they all assured that they were, and did not show any nostalgia for fame. They were also almost unanimous in responding that they did not leave vanity aside for belief, making it possible to reconcile both.

“I’ve always taken care of myself, I’ve always had this awareness since I was little, today I have this understanding that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and I have to take care of it,” says Valenssa, who will soon release a book related to beauty.

Bismarchi argues: “Did you know that there is a theology of the body? We will give an account of our body to God, so we have to take good care of it”, he declared. “I continue to take care of myself, but I no longer expose myself as before, I use sensuality a lot, and the Bible says that this is a sin in the way I used to do it. I block many men on Instagram, the harassment is still great, even more so now, as a divorcee.”

It’s as the biblical verse 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ (…) old things have passed away; behold, new things have come!”