Pep Antón Muñoz: "When love shows up in your life, you recognize it."

In October 1989, the actor Pep Antón Muñoz, the famous Peris deThe heart of the city, began rehearsals for the musical They are playing our song, which he starred in with Àngels Gonyalons. One day, the actor had a run-in with the assistant director, Julià Farràs. "I was quite heartbreaking, and after a while, I realized I might have made a nuisance of myself. I apologized, and he accepted," explains the actor and broadcaster. To put the matter to bed, he decided to invite him to dinner.

The surprise was that that dinner was the beginning of a love story that has lasted almost 37 years. They married in 2019 to be on a par with heterosexual couples and be protected by law in case they wanted to have children or one of them became widowed. They celebrated the wedding without guests, as they didn't need to throw a party. "Everything we needed to say to each other, about respect, affection, and fidelity, we had already said; we didn't need to get married for that," says Muñoz. What they did do was get dressed for the ceremony, and so, well-dressed, they showed up at the courthouse. "When we arrived, they told us we'd chosen the wrong day and that the judge wasn't there. We had written down the appointment for the 11th at 12, and they had written down the 12th at 11," the actor recalls.

The official felt bad because she'd seen they were so excited, so she called the judge to see if they were lucky: she lived in the same town, and it was her day off. "Don't worry, I'll come down and marry you," the judge replied, and she immediately showed up at the courthouse. "She treated us wonderfully well and made us feel very happy," says Muñoz.

The actor says that despite social progress, he remains on alert due to the wave of homophobia he feels is rampant in our country. "I suppose it's cyclical, but we can't take any steps back. When I discovered I liked men, I was eighteen years old and Franco was alive: being gay was not only frowned upon socially, but was also persecuted by the law. It's been many years of struggle and we must be very attentive."

Regarding what love means to him, the actor says: "When it shows up in your life, you recognize it."