Mário Gomes talks again about the carrot rumor: ‘Evil’

March 1977. The term “fake news” still did not dream of existing, but Mário Gomes, then one of the biggest heartthrobs on Brazilian TV and protagonist of Globo’s eight o’clock soap opera, was already suffering a moral lynching that came in the wake of a ” news” released in the press.

According to a note published in the tabloid Luta Democrática at the time, “the manly heartthrob of ‘Duas Vidas'” would have been hospitalized to remove a carrot “stuck in an absolutely invisible place”.

The note, which reverberated throughout the country, continued as follows: “The tubercle, as recorded in the care form, had been lodged there by himself, in a moment of uncontained desire for personal satisfaction. For the extraction, Mário Gomes had to be anesthetized “.

Forty-five years later, Mário continues to test his patience with each interview he gives, with each chat he participates in. The curiosity of others is still great about the episode that definitively marked his career and entered the annals (ops) of the gossip that had the most repercussions in the history of Brazilian TV.

In an interview with the YouTube channel “Cara a tapa”, he again stated that the “news” would have been invented and disseminated by Daniel Filho to take revenge. “Betty Faria and I fell in love, and she was with Daniel. He didn’t accept it (…) and, to get rid of the horn, the thing about having been betrayed, he invented this story and started to pursue me professionally”. The actor also said that his first reaction was to find the fake news “funny”.

“I saw the article about the carrot on newsstands, on the cover of the magazine. I laughed, I thought it was funny. It said: ‘When I was admitted to the hospital with a carrot stuck in it…’. It was a joke in bad taste, but what didn’t kills, strengthens us. I laughed at the time, then I got a little apprehensive. It was annoying, they cursed me when I passed, thinking I was gay. To this day they say: ‘Ah, the Carrot…’

In an interview with the magazine “Manchete”, in 1981, Daniel Filho spoke about the case. “They said that I was harming their work in the soap opera (Daniel was the director) and, the worst, that I was the author of the carrot news. It wasn’t until two years later that they came to the conclusion that it wasn’t true.”

In the same interview, he says he lived “a nightmare” when he learned about the relationship between Mário and Betty Faria. “I was pointed out in the street as a horn symbol, laughter and all.” Daniel also spoke about the end of the union with the actress. “Betty was already in love with him (…) and I knew that the only thing I could do was keep quiet. I immediately broke up and left.”