Former Marbella Mayor Julian Muñoz dies aged 76

Former mayor of Marbella, Julian Muñoz, affectionately known as ‘Cachuli,’ has died at age 76 after being hospitalised for more than fifteen days at the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella. 

The ex-partner of singer Isabel Pantoja had been avoiding the media spotlight for several years and focussing on enjoying family life while suffering health problems diagnosed while serving a prison sentence in Alhaurín de la Torre on corruption charges. He was granted parole in 2021 after a medical diagnosis, which was later revealed in the Spanish press to be cancer.

Julián Muñoz succeeded notorious Jesús Gil as mayor of Marbella

Julián Muñoz had become one of the most familiar faces in the Spanish press after succeeding the notorious Jesús Gil as mayor of Marbella in 2003. A motion of no confidence involving former associates of Gil cut Muñoz’s tenure in the council short, but the media attention only grew bigger.

The personal life of Julian Muñoz became increasingly the focus for the Paparazzi when his relationship with Isabel Pantoja was revealed. Cameras awaited the couple everywhere, but despite the media circus and gossip columns, the couple flaunted their romance for everyone to see. 

Julián Muñoz scandal leads to imprisonment for bribery and embezzlement of public funds

However, their idyllic romance and professional careers were truncated in 2006 during the infamous ‘Operation Malaya’, the biggest corruption case in Spanish history. Both Muñoz and Pantoja were eventually sentenced to time in Alhaurín de la Torre prison; in the case of Julian Muñoz, he received 20 years for bribery, embezzlement of public funds, and urban prevarication related to the granting of illegal construction licenses during the municipal term in office of Jesús Gil.

Despite attempting to keep a low profile, the Paparazzi returned when he remarried his ex-wife Mayte Zaldívar, who had previously divorced him due to his affair with Isabel Pantoja.

In the final television interview he gave, Julian Muñoz revealed that he was suffering from lung cancer, that diabetes had left him blind in one eye, and that he had had 2 heart attacks, but he was, in essence, happy.