PEP GUARDIOLA’S wife has broken her silence following her split from the Manchester City manager to insist she’s “feeling great”.
Cristina Serra looked a picture of happiness as she shopped alone in Barcelona a week after news of the couple’s shock break-up emerged.
She smiled as she was approached by a Spanish reporter in the city centre showing off a stylish look of white trainers and loose-fitting grey trousers with a designer handbag slung over the left shoulder of her cream-coloured coat.
Asked how she was doing, the mum-of-three replied: ‘Perfecta, gracias’ – ‘Perfect, thanks’ in English.
She added: “Everything’s fine” when quizzed again about her frame of mind.
But the pretty brunette opted for silence when she was asked about speculation the cause of their breakup had been Guardiola’s decision to stay at Manchester City and sign a two-year contract extension with his club.
Lorena Vazquez and fellow Spanish journalist Laura Fa, who make up a duo of well-respected showbiz reporters called the Mamarazzis, broke the story of the couple’s split at the start of last week.
Days later they claimed in a Podcast fashion entrepreneur Cristina had decided “enough was enough” after learning Pep had U-turned on a decision to quit Britain and was going to stay in his current job until 2027.
The 52-year-old, who was still visiting her husband in his adopted city until last summer despite returning to Barcelona in 2019 with their youngest daughter Valentina, now 17, to focus on her business interests, looked straight ahead as she was asked to comment on the claims and carried on walking.
She finished the brief exchange with a polite ‘Thank you’ as she entered a clothes store she had been heading towards.
Cristina’s first words about her feelings following the break-up showed her apparent determination to continue with her life as normal instead of holing up in the £8.4million home in the upmarket Barcelona neighbourhood of Pedralbes the couple purchased in 2021.
She moved into the property two years after leaving Manchester and Catalan press initially seized on the house purchase, made public in June 2021, as a sign 54-year-old Guardiola could be planning a return to Barcelona following Joan Laporta’s election as its president.
Lorena Vazquez said last week after breaking news of the split: “After Cristina returned to Barcelona from Manchester in 2019 to focus on her business interests, it’s true that the first rumours about her marriage to Pep surfaced, but no-one dared talking about there being a relationship crisis and much less so a split.
“That was until last September which is when those in Pep’s professional circle in Manchester first became surprised at not seeing Cristina in the city following the summer holidays and they began to wonder why she was not in Manchester with him.
“It was normal up until then to see Cristina in Manchester from time to time despite the fact she’d stopped living there on a full-time basis in 2019 and was mainly dividing her time between Barcelona and London.
“They’d carried on seeing each other and engaging in family activities and they were continuing to be a couple whenever they met up.
“Last September Cristina stopped appearing in Manchester.”
Colleague Laura Fa added of the break-up: “She takes the decision when he decides to extend his contract with Manchester City because in the previous months Pep had been preparing his departure from the club.
“We know one of his objectives was to leave and move to the United Arab Emirates.
“People around him were beginning to say goodbye to him because he wasn’t going to renew his contact.
“That decision not to renew was helping bring him closer to his wife but when he decided to stay and extend his contract Cristina decided enough was enough and it was her that decided to end the marriage that had lasted so many years.”
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At the weekend the Sun reported Guardiola held crisis talks last October with his partner of 30 years at his favourite Barcelona restaurant Bodega Sepulveda before signing the contract extension.
A waiter told the paper things “looked a little tense between them.”
The couple met in 1994 and married in 2014.
Spanish media have insisted Pep and Cristina continue to have a cordial and affectionate relationship and they have not split because of a third person.
Their eldest daughter Maria opened up on her parents’ lessons about love after becoming the first family member to speak since the shock news of their split.
The pretty influencer and fashionista said in a Spanish magazine interview published around the same time her dad’s break-up with wife of 30 years Cristina Serra emerged: “My parents have always advised me to find what I am passionate about.
“They encourage me to try new things, to accept failure and to keep searching until I find my calling, because when I do, full dedication will come naturally.
“They also remind me that the most important thing in life is to love and be loved.”
The 24-year-old London-based beauty went on to tell Vanity Fair Spain: “In the end it all comes down to feeling loved.
“Even in situations where we feel out of place, they tell me to listen carefully to others, there is always something valuable to learn from each person we meet.”
