Spanish actor Imanol Arias said he is deeply saddened by the legal situation facing his colleague Ana Duato, after an appeals chamber overturned her acquittal in the Nummaria case and ordered her to stand trial again.
Arias said the ruling seemed unjust to him and that he found it hard to understand how an acquittal could be called into question. He asked rhetorically whether the judges who had originally ruled in her favor were being treated as incompetent.
The actor made the remarks to reporters at a Jamiroquai concert held as part of the Icónica Festival in Seville, where he stopped while touring with the stage production Mejor no decirlo.
On stage with a close friend
Arias described the show as a comedy that approaches the complexities of cohabitation and romantic relationships with warmth and humor. He stars in it alongside actress María Barranco, one of his closest friends, whom he called a light and a force of nature. He said the way she plays her character requires his own to serve as an anchor, and that this dynamic is what keeps them both alive on stage. He added that they understand each other very well both on and off it.
The pair have shared around 70 hotels on the tour so far, with roughly 50 more ahead, Arias said. He noted that the travel, the discomforts, the planes, cars and buses are all much easier to bear when you are friends who respect each other and have a shared history. He said Barranco even makes her complaints funny.
Arias, who recently turned 70, said he feels exactly the same excitement about performing as he did when he began his career, and that he is in good health and living through one of the best periods of his life, personally and professionally. He expects to spend most of the coming months on tour but will take around 15 days of rest.
A landmark year
The actor described 2026 as a year of major events and great happiness. In January he married Nélida Inés Grajales, and he has since become a grandfather for the first time. He said that becoming a grandfather is a wonderful feeling that everyone describes to you but that you cannot truly grasp until it happens. He said it gives a sense that something has gone right, that a cycle has been completed, and that seeing his grandchild often has made him happier than he ever expected.
Arias rarely discusses his personal life, but in a recent interview with a Basque newspaper he revealed that he and Nélida first met briefly at a festival in Punta del Este, Uruguay, for no more than 15 minutes, and later ran into each other again on the street when they turned out to be neighbors in Buenos Aires.
The couple married in an intimate ceremony attended by only a small number of family and friends. It is his third marriage. He was previously married to Socorro Anadón in 1980, though the relationship ended shortly afterward, and to Irene Meritxell, whom he wed in Madrid in 2017 and separated from four years later. He also spent 25 years of his life with actress Pastora Vega, with whom he has two sons, Jon and Daniel, though they never married.
Arias said he could not attend the June wedding of his Cuéntame co-star Elena Rivera because he was on tour. He praised her warmly, said he was glad she is happy, and called her very talented.
