Belén Esteban Responds to Julia Janeiro and Throws Down a Gauntlet to Beatriz Trapote: "Tell the Other Story"

Belén Esteban has once again spoken out about the controversy she has been having for weeks with Julia Janeiro, which has also ended up affecting other members of Jesulín de Ubrique's family. The collaborator has reappeared before the media after her vacation and, far from fueling a direct war with the young woman, has chosen to downplay the confrontation, although she has not hesitated to answer some of the questions that have surrounded the conflict. 

Regarding Julia's words, who went so far as to define her as a "television meme" and as her father's "shadow," Belén has assured that she is not bothered. "I understand that everyone talks, that everyone has the right to," she explained, before admitting that she even likes that label: "I love being a television meme." The collaborator has made it clear that she does not intend to confront Jesulín's daughter: "I am not going to have a war," she said, also calling Julia "super funny" and appealing to her youth. 

One of the issues that has come back to the fore is that of the so-called 'nepo babies,' a term that triggered the current exchange of statements. Belén has insisted that her initial comment was aimed at defending that her daughter Andrea Janeiro does not belong to that category. "All I have said is that my daughter is not a nepo baby," she explained. Asked directly if she considers that Julia Janeiro can fit into that definition, she replied yes and extended her argument to other well-known faces: "Many more people. I mean, yes. For being Terelu's daughter, although she has a great professional career, huh?" For Belén, the label refers to the fact of being the child of people who work on television and does not in itself constitute an insult. 

The collaborator has also not wanted to close the door to talking about Julia in the future, although for now she rules out forcing a rapprochement. “Nothing should be forced at all and I have nothing to solve, honestly,” she assured. She has also denied some information related to the relationship between Julia and Andrea, although she has tried to preserve the privacy of her daughter, whom she continues to consider an anonymous person. Specifically, she explained that Julia was indeed at her house in the past, but she denied that she came accompanied by her father and rejected that there was an economic conflict between the sisters. 

Where Belén has indeed hardened her discourse has been when talking about Beatriz Trapote, after the journalist assured that the collaborator hurt her during her first stage on television and that she even kicked her off the small screen. Esteban responded with irony and questioned whether she had the capacity to decide who worked or not at Mediaset: “Was I Paolo Vasile or was I a program director?”. Then, she launched a direct challenge: “We have been waiting for 27 years. I want them to tell the story”. 

Belén went even further by publicly asking those who claim that there is another version of what happened to make it public. “If there is another story, tell it,” she insisted, assuring that she knows where the story they are referring to is going. She also invited to retrieve statements from previous years to check how Trapote's discourse has evolved: “Pull from the archives,” she demanded.

The tension has also reached some issues related to the Janeiro family and the relationship between Julia and Andrea. Belén has denied that Jesulín was with Julia when she visited her home and has denied that the relationship between the sisters broke down for economic reasons. “There has been no economic conflict,” she stated, although immediately afterwards she chose to stop her explanations: “I'm not going to go into that because those are their things.”

All in all, the collaborator seems to have chosen two different paths with the two protagonists of this controversy: conciliatory with Julia Janeiro and much more challenging with Beatriz Trapote. A position that she summarizes with a request that she has repeated during her reappearance: “Tell the other story.”