But when wealthy Guadalajara businessman Jorge Vergara went on television earlier this month to announce he was separating from his wife, the media buzz gathered speed rapidly.
At the same time as revealing the end of his seven-year marriage to Angelica Fuentes, the 60-year-old owner of the local Chivas soccer franchise and Omnilife nutrition and dietary supplements firm also announced that his wife was being summarily removed from her role as executive president of the companies.
Vergara said he had been alerted to “irregularities” into Fuentes’ financial management at Grupo Omnilife-Chivas, as well as the spinoff cosmetics company, Angelissima.
“I have to admit that I was a little blind and did not realize what was happening,” Vergara told the Univision network. “There are multiple aspects to this and we are investigating them.”
But Fuentes, 52, who is active on social media and tweets prolifically about gender rights and other issues, is not taking her dismissal lying down. In 2013, in addition to promoting her from director to president of Grupo Omnlife-Chivas, Vergara gifted her 43 percent of the company’s share holding (it currently stands at 49 percent, while Vergara holds 51 percent, reports indicate).
In what looks to be the start of a lengthy and costly legal battle, Fuentes has called for a general assembly of shareholders on April 29 in a bid to get herself reinstated as the company’s chef executive. Vergara said this week the move is illegal and that there is “no chance” of his wife returning to the post.
After a whirlwind romance, Vergara and Fuentes married in 2008 in a lavish, five-day ceremony in India that was given extensive coverage by Quien, Mexico’s leading celebrity culture magazine.
The couple have openly encouraged media coverage of their liaison, presumably believing that publicizing their seemingly happily relationship has a positive spin-off effect on their business enterprises.
Speaking to Univision, Vergara said he had not yet filed for divorce but suggested this was likely. The couple have two small children.
Vergara started his business career from the bottom, beginning as a pork rinds salesperson, before becoming a rep for Herbalife, the global nutrition and weight management company. With this experience in tow, in 1991 he founded Omnilife, which primarily develops, produces and distributes dietary and nutrition supplements in the form of powdered and liquid vitamins. It now operates in 18 countries and employs more than 3,500 people. The salespeople work under a multi-level business model, effectively becoming their own bosses, being rewarded for products they sell and for enrolling new representatives.
Vergara purchased the Chivas in 2002, promising a new era of success for supporters of Mexico’s most popular soccer team. To the dismay of fans, the team has under-performed during his time in charge, winning only one title, the Clausura tournament in 2006.
El Informador columnist Diego Petersen said the couple continually mixed the boundaries between their public and private lives and that the split could have a negative impact on Guadalajara and the soccer team in particular. “The Chivas brand is the most important in the state, one of the most important in the country and an element of our national identity. It is not only a matter of public love and heartbreak, it is a personal conflict that has risks for the city and the state. It is a relationship problem that involves us all, even those who are not Chivas fans.”
However, Chivas President Nestor de la Torre said the separation and legal consequences would not impact the team and that everyone was feeling “very calm.”
Fuentes, predictably, has curtailed her social media activity. Her last tweet on her personal account was made on April 1, two days before her husband made his announcement. Meanwhile, the Angelissima website has been taken down and replaced by omnilife.com.