Stefano De Martino admits: “It was disheartening to be labeled as” Mr. Belén “”

Like the planet with its satellites. Or rather, like the sun that sheds its warm light all around. This could be the image that represents the relationship between Bethlehem Rodriguez and the men who have gravitated to her life in recent years. The ex-husband Stefano De Martino is no exception. Their love, born in 2012 behind the scenes of Friends 11 when he was still engaged to Emma Marrone, crowned in 2013 by the wedding and the birth of Santiago, closed in 2015, revived in 2019 and ended with a new farewell in 2020, has contributed to the notoriety of both. But especially at the beginning it ended up diminishing the talent of the dancer. Stefano, for most, was “Signor Belén”. A label that, as De Martino himself confessed in a recent interview with Republic, he didn’t like it at all: «Labels detract by definition. I’ve always believed in what I wanted to do. At 23, for the kind of ambition I had, it was disheartening to think I was just someone else’s shadow. I wanted to show that there was more. But maybe in those years I didn’t communicate much else, e having been only “Mr. Belén” was there. Maybe I would have defined myself that way too».

Now that he is 32 years old, Stefano can well say that of labels, by working hard, it is possible to free oneself. He has been able to build a career with determination: Friends, Made in Sud, Everything is possible tonight. E from 28 December he will be the protagonist on Rai 2 in the late evening with a tailor-made show of which he is also the author: Stella Bar. Plus, he’s about to make his acting debut. Andrea Zalone – one of Maurizio Crozza’s best-known authors – chose him as the film’s co-star The most beautiful day. Next to Fiammetta Cicogna, we will see him in the role of a new husband.

From set to real life, Stefano’s sentimental situation is top secret. Net of a summer gossip, never confirmed, which wanted him linked to the model Paola Di Benedetto, we know nothing about his current affairs of the heart. The former “Signor Belén” is a new man. This is demonstrated by the confidentiality with which he guards his private sphere. His professional choices prove it. Stefano knows that beauty is «a recommendation and as such it opens doors, the road becomes downhill ». But he “immediately learned not to be fond of beauty, better to focus on something else and build. In dance you work with the body, you don’t have that kind of modesty. As long as I danced, I didn’t find it strange to undress“. In 2015, the billboards in which he posed in briefs for an underwear company in Naples sent the traffic into a tailspin. Such sexy photos, with all due respect to the De Martino fans, we will never see them again: «Right now I would be ashamed as a thief. I wouldn’t be able to run a program and stand on a billboard in my underwear».