Spanish-American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist Maria Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza—known rofessionally known by her stage name, “Charo”—began her career as a singer for Cuban musician and bandleader Xavier Cugat and his orchestra, breathing new life into the bandleader’s time-worn act.
Cugat and his band had been touring the world and performing his Spanish salsa and flamenco music since 1925 or so.
In 1966, Charo married the much-older Cugat. Since Charo is extremely cagey about her date of birth or age, and exact age difference between her and Cugat is difficult to estimate. But by the looks of things, the difference was about 40 years, maybe a little more.
Charo and Cugat divorced in 1978, when the bandleader was 78. Charo by that time had established her own career as an entertainer, a ubiquitous presence (“Cuchi-Cuchi” was her catchphrase, usually accompanied by a hip-bump) on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” Bob Hope USO tours and TV specials, and The Hollywood Squares celebrity game show.
But Cugat and Charo remained close, and Charo provided hospice care for her former husband and mentor when his health grew worse with advanced age.
Xavier Cugat died in 1990.