How does José Castelo Branco pay the bills? Without Betty Grafstein and ignored by TV, a former art dealer hatches a strategy to maintain his 'lifestyle' - The Mag (2024)

José Castelo Branco has confessed to his few friends, who have not abandoned him after his wife Betty Grafstein was accused of domestic violence, that there are people who want to “destroy” him. He does not hide the names: “That Marcela”, he assumes, and “that son who never had anything to do with his mother and who is now showing up”. The former “marchand d'art” – art dealer – says that Marcela Fernandes, a name associated with nightlife and the security services, and the current owner of one of the most famous former strip clubs in Lisbon, the Gallery, which the businesswoman has converted into a restaurant, where Castelo Branco has performed, and who has allied himself with Roger, Betty's son, “for money”.

And as he says it in private, in the “small committees” – as he calls the dinners he organizes and shows on social media, at Marlos’s house, where he lives – he also says it publicly. In an interview with the program “Dois à 10”, the first since the scandal of the accusations, Castelo Branco took aim at the businesswoman, listing the many legal proceedings in which she is allegedly involved.

For her part, Marcela Fernandes has already admitted, also in a program on TVI, that she was the one who “reported” the domestic violence that José Castelo Branco allegedly practiced on Betty Grafstein, demolishing the theory that Abel Dias, an old friend of the couple, was the basis of this complaint.

Since then, Marcela has been by Roger's side as he passes through Lisbon to transport Betty to New York, where she is currently admitted to a home where she receives constant care, thus becoming, admittedly, the new “number one” enemy of the dealer.

Not indifferent, but trying to ignore the power that the businesswoman exerts over Betty and her heir Roger, Castelo Branco tries to “continue living”. In the interview on TVi – his “home” as he calls it – he left a message: he was available to present or participate in a TV show and he did not even understand why he had not been contacted, revealing that his family and his son had been invited to that place.

The fact is that it was Guilherme who was called to the Media Capital program, which confirms the theory that TVI does not want “mixtures”, that is, it does not call Castelo Branco to compete in programs while his name is involved in the process of domestic violence.

Bills to pay

Without work and far from his “home”, which means not being able to find sources of income in the wake of the scandal, the dealer has had to think about finding solutions. He lives in the house of his old friend Marlos, where he “pays the rent” – and he has already declared it. “I am a survivor,” he told Cristina Ferreira on the Dois à 10 program. “I will do whatever it takes,” he confessed, explaining that he was never “afraid” of working. But he did not: he did transformation shows at a young age, in the Trump nightclub, met the elite and became an art dealer, and in this environment he met Betty, whom he later married. He continued to make his own “deals” until he was called to TVI, in 2004 – now 20 years later – to give color to “Quinta das Celebridades”, then the station's new reality show, presented by Julia Pinheiro (then at TVI) where it would become a popular phenomenon – and a money-making machine.

“Peeeeeechas!” The craziest photos of Jose Castelo Branco at Quinta das Celebridades

Since then his life has changed radically. Castelo Branco, adored by some, hated by others, himself a victim of prejudice thanks to his effeminate air and narcissistic temperament, began to “parade” on the catwalks of New York and on the platforms of the Portuguese people, fascinated by his “different” appearance and by many people. Sometimes misunderstood. She never lost her balance – “like a lady who never loses her balance,” she says – not even now, in one of the most painful moments of her 61-year life.

And how will it be from now on? Flash! He knows that Castelo Branco wants to return to the art world, but above all, to television. He sees Guilherme's debut as a commentator, and 20 years of “Quinta das Celebridades” as a gateway to achieve this. But in the television field, everything will depend on the evolution of the legal process concerning Betty Grafstein, and of course on the social behavior of Castelo Branco – who cannot silence his anger towards her, despite the advice of the lawyers not to do so. So.

There are more obstacles that Castelo Branco will have to overcome – as in a computer game – if he wants to sell and make money. Access to part of the art collection, left in the Sintra house rented by Pedro Pico, with whom he has had a dispute and is accused of theft, is one of them. And in the middle, there is still the “mystery” of the missing jewels, which has already caused a lot of public controversy, with accusations from both Castelo and Marcela Fernandes – the alleged guardian of the bags that were supposedly found.

However, all this is done in the short term, not in the long term, since the merchant could find himself forever deprived of the company of Betty, who is already old and has separated from him. Everything will depend on this distance, the development of the divorce process, and above all, something that cannot be controlled: time. And this is what will decide – to a large extent – whether José Castelo Branco will remain a rich man… or not. It depends: on time and the courts.