Let us not turn into a Rafa debate please. A nice article about some of the work Montse has been doing.
In an exclusive ECHO interview Janet Tansley talks to Montse Benitez about the Foundation she is to set up and life on the Wirral with one of soccer’s greatest managers
HARDWORKING, committed, driven... but soccer boss Rafa Benitez isn’t the only member of his family to exude these qualities. Wife, Montse, has them in abundance, complemented by an unbounded caring and compassion. It stems from her loving and traditional upbringing, the humanitarian work she did before she met her charming Spaniard and the belief that, luckier than most, she should share her good fortune.
“I have a great husband, two wonderful girls and a lovely home. I am lucky. “And I have always thought that it would be selfish not to share a bit of it.”
Montse, 44, is already a very hands on patron of The Lily Centre breast cancer support group in Liverpool and a keen supporter of Hoylake Cottage Hospital, in Wirral, and will continue to be so.
But those clearly don’t fulfil her philanthropic ambition.
Thus, The Montse Benitez Foundation is to be launched in September, the exact date of which has yet to be determined.
It will aim to support local charities and cover the spectrum of ages from children to the elderly.
“For the past five or six years Rafa and I have supported a lot of different local charities and been very involved in many of them,” says Montse.
“But we thought it was going to be better to co-ordinate all our fundraising efforts and distribute the money we get to a number of smaller local charities across Merseyside and Wirral.
“We will hold different events during the year with the money given to at least three local charities which will be able to apply for funding.”
Charities which will benefit, and can apply, need to be without council or government aid with a maximum fundraising pot of around £15,000 a year.
But, because applications cannot yet be accepted until the charity is officially established with its own registration number (for which Montse is waiting) she and Rafa have already chosen the first five beneficiaries, to be revealed at the launch.
The couple usually raise between £35,000 and £40,000 each year but hope to increase that to £50,000.
Rafa is to host a dinner at the Liverpool ECHO arena in September with around 1,500 guests and, not surprisingly, people are already coming forward to buy tables. Part of Rafa’s fee will go to the Foundation along with proceeds from an auction.
Sitting on one of the cream sofas in her stylish lounge, a casually but smartly dressed Montse speaks with efficiency about the Foundation and how it will function.
But as she talks about who it will benefit, she suddenly leans forward and becomes far more animated, her face filled with passion: “It will help the very young and the very old.
“Children need help because they are ill or have family problems, or they have learning difficulties or other problems.
“But I am anxious to continue support for the elderly, people who have dementia. But it’s not just about children and old people, there has to be a balance within the community so that everyone can be involved.”
Montse reflects that such generosity and caring ‘is a family thing’.
“Back in Spain my grandparents loved to share what they had with people with less success or luck in life. I don’t remember any of my grandparents or great grandparents going to a nursing home; all of them were in the house until the last moment. The family would look after family, we respect the elderly.
“Also I did a degree in human rights and was working with the International Red Cross before I met and married Rafa.
“I worked with the Red Cross for two years as a human rights delegate in North Africa, dealing with the human rights of prisoners. I had to go to prisons and camps twice a year to check that the conditions were acceptable.
“I would interview the officers in charge and help to get mail or parcels from families to the prisoners. I’d have a list of prisoners to see, particularly those with health problems, and I’d carry out follow-up visits too to make sure they were being properly cared for.
“Of course, when we went to visit everything would be just so, but we could talk to the prisoners in private and get genuine feedback of what was going on.”
Montse’s other duties included going into universities and primary schools to talk about human rights: “Especially in cases where there was civil war we would talk about humanitarian law, the rights of prisoners and their families and the support that could be offered.
“Doing that I realised how many people there were who needed help, so there was always this idea of charitable work in my mind and, because of my husband’s name it’s easier to get time with people who can help.
“Often people look to the big causes because they are quite shocking, the tsunamis and the earthquakes, and neglect those in need on their own doorstep, people living in poverty, people with no jobs, the elderly whose pension is so small you see them in the supermarket, counting the pennies and it’s so very sad.
“These are people who have worked all their lives and they have to count the pennies for a loaf of bread.”
Not for Montse the stereotypical life of a WAG, a regular on the red carpet and frequent visitor to the designer stores and celebrity salons.
She and Rafa have, she stresses, never wanted to be different than they have been throughout their lives.
“Both of us have worked hard to be where we are,” she says, and they are adamant that they instil that ethos into their children, Claudia, 12, and Agata, eight.
“They go to local schools not fancy private ones, their friends are normal people, as are ours.
“The girls don’t have everything they want.” Montse giggles as she recalls: “We used to say they had to wait ‘until daddy wins a game’, now it’s easier, we say daddy hasn’t got a job!
“To the rest of people we are just Rafa, Montse and the children. Rafa goes to Tesco and stands with the mums on the school gates. We are just the Benitezes, not his lord and ladyship at the top of the hill.
“We feel part of the community.”
The couple are often asked why they haven’t moved back to Spain but, with disarming and endearing honesty, Montse wonders why on earth they ever would.
“With Rafa’s job we have moved from place to place and you never feel you belong. Even if we did move back to Spain our friends have their own lives, they live in different places.
“Agata was a baby when we came here and to them, this is home. They never say ‘I’m Spanish’, they say are English, they are from Liverpool. Theirs – and our – best friends are here now.
“I have been to all sorts of places all over the world, and there is nowhere like this. The people are so warm, they are easy to approach. Liverpool people have a talent to make you feel like you belong to the big family, it’s brilliant, and I don’t think that’s because of Rafa. It’s normal to them.
“They try to help you and, even if they don’t know you, there’s always a hand held out. Last year when we had the snow people were going to the supermarket for the older people or those who were stuck, getting mail and fetching pensions – that’s something you can’t find now in many places. Maybe because Liverpool has been through so many problems and come back, it’s in its genes, everybody works together.”
A little like Montse and Rafa.
Clearly this is the best team of which he has ever been a part. And while there have been tough times over the last year or so they have faced it together: “Whenever Rafa is a bit down I try to lift him up and whenever I am a bit down he tried to lift me up.
“The last year-and-a-half has been like a rollercoaster and it was hard for me to stand back.”
Since returning from Inter Milan, Montse laughs when I ask if he’s getting under her feet, and admits it is strange having her husband constantly around.
“But it is nice, good for the family,” she smiles.
“He has been able to do things that he could never do before, like taking the children to school on a regular basis, spend the weekend with us – if the weather is nice we will all go for a walk on the beach with the dogs.
“We can have a proper holiday together without him being on the phone all the time. Rafa is a family man, he’s relaxed, a joker.
“Of course, I know his career, so we will just enjoy this gap. It’s been 14-15 years without a stop. I remember when Rafa came back from Italy he looked drained. Now he looks better and he’s healthier, he is training every day.”
And, of course, he can help Montse launch her Foundation which, she volunteers, should be his as well: “But he wants it to be mine,” she says, and she looks fondly over to her husband.
Fundraisers will include ladies’ lunches, golf events, dinners and balls with something to suit every pocket.
“There are a lot of people on whom I can call to help: Paul McCartney always gives something because his brother lives in Heswall; I can ask others for photographs, signed shirts, and they do it.
“And the girls help me. At Christmas if we go packing bags in the supermarket, Claudia comes and helps, in July we had a golf day in aid of Hoylake Cottage and she served drinks to the golfers.”
Thankfully – and helpfully – Montse is getting used to the Scouse accent and even displays a hint or two of it between her Spanish lilt.
And, while she revels in being able to help others because of her ‘connections’, she loves too the minutiae of ordinary family life: Rafa, often the first up, starting breakfast, spending time with the horses along with her daughters and helping out at their schools; watching ‘telly’ together – “not normally what I want to watch”.
It’s a joy Rafa shares too: “He is helping the school football teams at St Bridget’s (which Agata attends) and goes along on Fridays. Recently St Bridget’s won and the other team complained to the ref that they had a profession trainer, to which Rafa explained ‘but I’m just a school dad’. ;D
Again Montse’s face lights up as he smiles over at her husband, busy chatting away to a friend on the other side of the room. “He is a lovely man, I am very lucky,” she states.
But, looking at her, warm, attractive, intelligent, caring...I’m mindful that so is he.
And, thanks to Montse and her soon to be launched Foundation, others will be lucky too.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-life/liverpool-lifestyle/2011/07/27/rafael-benitez-s-wife-montse-announces-the-launch-of-her-charity-foundation-100252-29125062/4/
In an exclusive ECHO interview Janet Tansley talks to Montse Benitez about the Foundation she is to set up and life on the Wirral with one of soccer’s greatest managers
HARDWORKING, committed, driven... but soccer boss Rafa Benitez isn’t the only member of his family to exude these qualities. Wife, Montse, has them in abundance, complemented by an unbounded caring and compassion. It stems from her loving and traditional upbringing, the humanitarian work she did before she met her charming Spaniard and the belief that, luckier than most, she should share her good fortune.
“I have a great husband, two wonderful girls and a lovely home. I am lucky. “And I have always thought that it would be selfish not to share a bit of it.”
Montse, 44, is already a very hands on patron of The Lily Centre breast cancer support group in Liverpool and a keen supporter of Hoylake Cottage Hospital, in Wirral, and will continue to be so.
But those clearly don’t fulfil her philanthropic ambition.
Thus, The Montse Benitez Foundation is to be launched in September, the exact date of which has yet to be determined.
It will aim to support local charities and cover the spectrum of ages from children to the elderly.
“For the past five or six years Rafa and I have supported a lot of different local charities and been very involved in many of them,” says Montse.
“But we thought it was going to be better to co-ordinate all our fundraising efforts and distribute the money we get to a number of smaller local charities across Merseyside and Wirral.
“We will hold different events during the year with the money given to at least three local charities which will be able to apply for funding.”
Charities which will benefit, and can apply, need to be without council or government aid with a maximum fundraising pot of around £15,000 a year.
But, because applications cannot yet be accepted until the charity is officially established with its own registration number (for which Montse is waiting) she and Rafa have already chosen the first five beneficiaries, to be revealed at the launch.
The couple usually raise between £35,000 and £40,000 each year but hope to increase that to £50,000.
Rafa is to host a dinner at the Liverpool ECHO arena in September with around 1,500 guests and, not surprisingly, people are already coming forward to buy tables. Part of Rafa’s fee will go to the Foundation along with proceeds from an auction.
Sitting on one of the cream sofas in her stylish lounge, a casually but smartly dressed Montse speaks with efficiency about the Foundation and how it will function.
But as she talks about who it will benefit, she suddenly leans forward and becomes far more animated, her face filled with passion: “It will help the very young and the very old.
“Children need help because they are ill or have family problems, or they have learning difficulties or other problems.
“But I am anxious to continue support for the elderly, people who have dementia. But it’s not just about children and old people, there has to be a balance within the community so that everyone can be involved.”
Montse reflects that such generosity and caring ‘is a family thing’.
“Back in Spain my grandparents loved to share what they had with people with less success or luck in life. I don’t remember any of my grandparents or great grandparents going to a nursing home; all of them were in the house until the last moment. The family would look after family, we respect the elderly.
“Also I did a degree in human rights and was working with the International Red Cross before I met and married Rafa.
“I worked with the Red Cross for two years as a human rights delegate in North Africa, dealing with the human rights of prisoners. I had to go to prisons and camps twice a year to check that the conditions were acceptable.
“I would interview the officers in charge and help to get mail or parcels from families to the prisoners. I’d have a list of prisoners to see, particularly those with health problems, and I’d carry out follow-up visits too to make sure they were being properly cared for.
“Of course, when we went to visit everything would be just so, but we could talk to the prisoners in private and get genuine feedback of what was going on.”
Montse’s other duties included going into universities and primary schools to talk about human rights: “Especially in cases where there was civil war we would talk about humanitarian law, the rights of prisoners and their families and the support that could be offered.
“Doing that I realised how many people there were who needed help, so there was always this idea of charitable work in my mind and, because of my husband’s name it’s easier to get time with people who can help.
“Often people look to the big causes because they are quite shocking, the tsunamis and the earthquakes, and neglect those in need on their own doorstep, people living in poverty, people with no jobs, the elderly whose pension is so small you see them in the supermarket, counting the pennies and it’s so very sad.
“These are people who have worked all their lives and they have to count the pennies for a loaf of bread.”
Not for Montse the stereotypical life of a WAG, a regular on the red carpet and frequent visitor to the designer stores and celebrity salons.
She and Rafa have, she stresses, never wanted to be different than they have been throughout their lives.
“Both of us have worked hard to be where we are,” she says, and they are adamant that they instil that ethos into their children, Claudia, 12, and Agata, eight.
“They go to local schools not fancy private ones, their friends are normal people, as are ours.
“The girls don’t have everything they want.” Montse giggles as she recalls: “We used to say they had to wait ‘until daddy wins a game’, now it’s easier, we say daddy hasn’t got a job!
“To the rest of people we are just Rafa, Montse and the children. Rafa goes to Tesco and stands with the mums on the school gates. We are just the Benitezes, not his lord and ladyship at the top of the hill.
“We feel part of the community.”
The couple are often asked why they haven’t moved back to Spain but, with disarming and endearing honesty, Montse wonders why on earth they ever would.
“With Rafa’s job we have moved from place to place and you never feel you belong. Even if we did move back to Spain our friends have their own lives, they live in different places.
“Agata was a baby when we came here and to them, this is home. They never say ‘I’m Spanish’, they say are English, they are from Liverpool. Theirs – and our – best friends are here now.
“I have been to all sorts of places all over the world, and there is nowhere like this. The people are so warm, they are easy to approach. Liverpool people have a talent to make you feel like you belong to the big family, it’s brilliant, and I don’t think that’s because of Rafa. It’s normal to them.
“They try to help you and, even if they don’t know you, there’s always a hand held out. Last year when we had the snow people were going to the supermarket for the older people or those who were stuck, getting mail and fetching pensions – that’s something you can’t find now in many places. Maybe because Liverpool has been through so many problems and come back, it’s in its genes, everybody works together.”
A little like Montse and Rafa.
Clearly this is the best team of which he has ever been a part. And while there have been tough times over the last year or so they have faced it together: “Whenever Rafa is a bit down I try to lift him up and whenever I am a bit down he tried to lift me up.
“The last year-and-a-half has been like a rollercoaster and it was hard for me to stand back.”
Since returning from Inter Milan, Montse laughs when I ask if he’s getting under her feet, and admits it is strange having her husband constantly around.
“But it is nice, good for the family,” she smiles.
“He has been able to do things that he could never do before, like taking the children to school on a regular basis, spend the weekend with us – if the weather is nice we will all go for a walk on the beach with the dogs.
“We can have a proper holiday together without him being on the phone all the time. Rafa is a family man, he’s relaxed, a joker.
“Of course, I know his career, so we will just enjoy this gap. It’s been 14-15 years without a stop. I remember when Rafa came back from Italy he looked drained. Now he looks better and he’s healthier, he is training every day.”
And, of course, he can help Montse launch her Foundation which, she volunteers, should be his as well: “But he wants it to be mine,” she says, and she looks fondly over to her husband.
Fundraisers will include ladies’ lunches, golf events, dinners and balls with something to suit every pocket.
“There are a lot of people on whom I can call to help: Paul McCartney always gives something because his brother lives in Heswall; I can ask others for photographs, signed shirts, and they do it.
“And the girls help me. At Christmas if we go packing bags in the supermarket, Claudia comes and helps, in July we had a golf day in aid of Hoylake Cottage and she served drinks to the golfers.”
Thankfully – and helpfully – Montse is getting used to the Scouse accent and even displays a hint or two of it between her Spanish lilt.
And, while she revels in being able to help others because of her ‘connections’, she loves too the minutiae of ordinary family life: Rafa, often the first up, starting breakfast, spending time with the horses along with her daughters and helping out at their schools; watching ‘telly’ together – “not normally what I want to watch”.
It’s a joy Rafa shares too: “He is helping the school football teams at St Bridget’s (which Agata attends) and goes along on Fridays. Recently St Bridget’s won and the other team complained to the ref that they had a profession trainer, to which Rafa explained ‘but I’m just a school dad’. ;D
Again Montse’s face lights up as he smiles over at her husband, busy chatting away to a friend on the other side of the room. “He is a lovely man, I am very lucky,” she states.
But, looking at her, warm, attractive, intelligent, caring...I’m mindful that so is he.
And, thanks to Montse and her soon to be launched Foundation, others will be lucky too.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-life/liverpool-lifestyle/2011/07/27/rafael-benitez-s-wife-montse-announces-the-launch-of-her-charity-foundation-100252-29125062/4/
