Claudia Raia recalls romance with Jô Soares: ‘It’s difficult to date someone with that shape’

Claudia Raia, 57, dated TV presenter Jô Soares (1938-2022) for two years and the actress still cherishes the memories of the relationship. In an interview for the documentary series ‘Um Beijo do Gordo’, recently released by Globoplay, she talked about the difficulties of dating ‘someone with that shape’, the challenges of the age difference and what motivated the breakup.

She said she doesn’t remember the beginning of their relationship in 1984. “I can’t tell you how I started dating him, because, for me, it was difficult to date someone who had that shape, or a man much older than me. He was 30 years older than me,” explains Claudia, emphasizing that the couple received malicious comments in the media.

At the time, she was a rising star and the presenter was already a well-established name in the performing arts. “Everyone thought it was really strange that this girl had just arrived, beautiful, hot, that everyone wanted to get with… Like, ‘how absurd’. There was a lot of prejudice, the age thing too, and I simply didn’t want to know about it. It was almost three years of a very intense relationship.

The relationship ended in 1986, according to her, because of Jô Soares. He seemed insecure about the future of the relationship and, in order to avoid future suffering, he decided to put an end to it. The fact that the two were not in crisis made it difficult to let go. Claudia says she struggled to get over this great love: “We separated loving each other very much. It was very painful, really painful.”

Claudia, who was recently criticized for encouraging female masturbation, recalled: “He asked to break up. He said he loved me deeply, that was why he was doing this. He said I was much younger than him — I was younger than his son — and that, at some point, I would fall in love with a young man, that it was very natural for this to happen and he wouldn’t be able to handle it, he would freak out,” she said: “That I would have a very brilliant career and maybe he wouldn’t be able to handle it either. At the time, I didn’t really understand. ‘Why? We love each other, we are passionate about each other.’ So we broke up loving each other very much.”