The love story between Alejandro Riaño and Marialejandra Manotas that ends today

“Since love, we have made the decision to end the relationship as a couple.” With that phrase, Alejandro Riaño and Marialejandra Manotas confirmed the divorce, after three years of marriage, and the end of an intense and recognized love story that, like many others, experienced ups and downs, emotions, and in which laughter was not lacking.

Both are consolidated personalities on social networks. Riaño is recognized as one of the first to leave national television to focus his talent on these digital channels and Manotas, although she is an architect and entrepreneur, has also gained a large following.

It was through Instagram that he started his story. As Alejandro has told in several show shows, such as Suso's Show, the same day he ended up with his ex-girlfriend, Lina Polania, he dared to write a message to Manotas, whom he had been following since before, but he had only seen her in photos. “When are you going to a show of mine?” , he said.

The first time Riaño saw her was almost three years before that message. He crossed paths with her when she was jogging in Cali, was shocked and asking her that it was “La Manotas”, she later told in a video about their relationship; but it took a long time until they spoke for the first time.

She was not an unknown person in Valle del Cauca; in 2012, at the age of 18, she was Miss Palmira and lost the pageant to Carmen Lucía Aldana Roldán, who just that year was crowned Miss Colombia in the beauty reign.

Manotas later studied architecture at Universidad Javeriana and a diploma in interior design. After graduating from the reign, he designed his own house. His undergraduate project was the creation of the Caoba Design studio that he still directs. She then started a beauty and hair products company called Everyday Col and is part of an advertising agency Press & Digital Agency.

Since she was young, she liked to jog around the Cali River, as she confessed during her reign to the newspaper El País, always passionate about sports. Sportswear and bicycle brands, one of the disciplines she likes the most, have hired her as an ambassador, as she has almost half a million followers on her social networks.

After receiving the comedian's message, she went to the play, but they didn't meet. Later, he decided to accept another invitation in which Riaño had proposed to go to the last function of “Every child with his ballot”, which was on a Wednesday. But she told him that she preferred to go on Tuesday; a problem for the comedian who had already invited another woman that day.

After finishing the show, she came to greet him, but the match was a fiasco. Marialejandra had also recently finished with her boyfriend Felipe by then and she hoped that they would go to eat after the show, as the comedian had proposed, but when she greeted him she felt that he was indifferent and sharp, so he said goodbye and plans were suspended. It was not a good start for what would come next, he even decided not to reply to his messages on social networks again.

“I thought I would never speak to him again because he seemed rude to me. Later he confidently confessed to me that on Wednesday he had also invited another girl with whom he finally did not thrive and that shows that what belongs to one belongs to one,” said María Alejandra in a video in which he told the story.

It was a while later that they both met, without planning it, at a party. But there was Riaño accompanied by another woman, Diana, although it was not an impediment to getting to know each other. In the middle of the chat with the other friends, she said she liked short men and those inches apart were enough for him to propose a new invitation to dinner.

“You didn't write to me again, tell me now, we went out to eat, yes or no,” wrote the comedian again convinced that this would be the opportunity to get to know each other.

That time the date was fulfilled and during dinner, as quoted by the Caracol channel, the two spent a special night that confirmed their attraction. In particular, Frank Sinatra's music forged the connection because they both liked it and both Riaño and Manotas say that from that moment on they didn't separate.

Marialejandra was anxious about the idea of becoming a mother and took regular pregnancy tests, until finally one of them came out positive at the beginning of 2018 when she returned from a trip to Brazil. They had been living together for a year, but the news took them by surprise.

Their first daughter, Matilde, was born there, who conquered their lives and forged the bond they were already prepared to assume, a news that was also publicly known alongside their decision to marry a few months later.

In the middle of that year, Riaño decided to propose to Manotas. He did it first in the privacy of his home, with a champagne, but soon he left romantic modesty and in June, in the middle of a trip to Europe, in a restaurant on the banks of the Seine River and with the Eiffel Tower in the background, he confirmed his proposal.

The excitement was filled with laughter because the engagement ring was flying on Maria's ring finger. Although Riaño had asked for the number eight, it was very big for him; but in the face of all adversity he answered excitedly yes.

The couple married in civil matters at a notary office in Bogotá on May 18, 2019 and then celebrated together with friends and personalities in an ostentatious ceremony at the El Pórtico restaurant. They shared some images on their networks, but few words, as Riaño said, because of the hangover that the celebration left them.

After their first year of marriage and four years together, Manotas shared a heartfelt message of their relationship. “It has been 4 wonderful years where we have built a beautiful family, 4 years where we have also fought, gone through difficult things and reconciled, everyone believes that being married to a comedian is just laughs, most of the time it is like this hahaha but we are also a common couple who fights. 4 years of many changes, the Alexander I knew later became Juanpis (artistically) and without a doubt life changed us in so many ways that only those who live and face them understand them,” he said.

In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, the couple was not going through a good time. According to Riaño and Manotas in an interview with Laura Acuña, they had been in an intimate fight for several days in which they even thought it might be the end of the marriage, but an unexpected surprise led them to consolidate their love.

“In the pandemic we were super fought, all wrong. I went into the bathroom and took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. I went out and said: let's talk, we had been saying “we have to talk, we have to talk” for about three days, and I said well, let's talk about what we need to talk about,” Manotas said.

They both sat and waited for what the other had to say. As they told in that space, Alejandro had created his character Juanpis González which led him to be very immersed in political issues and gave him a burst of popularity on social networks. He devoted a lot of time to the production of the character, videos and interviews, and focused his attention on everything that triggered, which moved a little away from family life.

“We were in a pandemic, locked up and I was very involved in the political issue, so we started talking about that disconnection in marriage, we were very disconnected at the time,” Alejandro Riaño said.

Sitting next to Manotas at the time he even thought that marriage had not worked. “I said: 'Well, we have Mati, we're going to be engaged for life, the best thing is that we do things right and suddenly she tells me: it's not going to happen, I'm pregnant,” Riaño recalled.

She started crying and showed him the proof. A news that led them to overcome their differences and take on the upbringing of another child, they believed, because until that moment another surprise was still waiting for them. On the first ultrasound, the doctor confirmed to Manotas that they were twins.

Riaño's family had a history on the part of their grandmother of twin pregnancies, and they even predicted that one of them should repeat the condition. Even so, the comedian's reaction went viral when his wife told him: “There's no baby, there's two.”

The couple told Acuña that on the day of the birth of Antonio and Agustín, as they called them, they remembered their past. They expected them to be born on February 18, 2021, but the two anticipated for February 9. When they were filling out the birth documents, Marialejandra noted that just that day was the birthday of her ex-boyfriend Felipe.

In recent weeks, information circulated that was confirmed on March 23. Riaño and Manotas advance their divorce proceedings. Although they wanted to keep it private and be able to go through this difficult process in privacy, they decided to confirm the information through their social networks.

“To Mari, thank you for appearing in my life. For you always all my love and respect. Life sure brought us together to love each other as we did, and to bring into the world three wonderful human beings like A.M.A. So here I am for us to accompany each other and take care of our children forever,” Riaño wrote on his Instagram account.

“We only understood that we were on different paths and we are always going to support each other and accompany each other as parents and friends. With love we ask you a lot of prudence and respect in the face of this decision,” Marialejandra wrote for her part.

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