Woman claims Diego Maradona seduced her when she was 16, got her hooked on cocaine and bullied her into getting a boob job while still a teenager in TV interview
- Allegations against the footballing legend were made by Cuban Mavys Alvarez
- She claims they first met when he was in Cuba, ironically for drug rehabilitation
- Alvarez said she was approached by a member of Maradona’s entourage
- This led to a three-year relationship between the pair, she said in the interview
- During that time, she said Maradona got her hooked on cocaine and at one point ‘flew the teenager to Buenos Aires in Argentina for a breast enlargement’
Football legend Diego Maradona seduced a former lover when she was aged just 16 and then got her hooked on cocaine, she has claimed.
Cuban Mavys Alvarez alleges the late football legend then bullied her into having a boob job while she was still a teen during their alleged three-year affair.
She broke her silence about their relationship in a four-part interview with TV station América TeVe.
Cuban Mavys Alvarez, pictured during a four-part interview with TV station América TeVe, has claimed that footballing icon Diego Maradona seduced her when she was just 16 and got her hooked on cocaine and bullied her into have a boob job
Pictured: Diego Maradona (left) is received by Cuban Doctor Bernabe Ordaz (right), director of the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana, shortly after his arrival in the Cuba capital 18 January 2000. Maradona, 39, was in Cuba to receive treatment for his cocaine habit, two weeks after he was admitted to a Uruguayan private clinic after collapsing due to a drug overdose
Blonde-haired Mavys, now 37, said: ‘Diego introduced me to drugs when I was still 16.
‘It was the biggest mistake of my life.’
She said she kept their relationship secret for so long out of fear that her family who still live in Cuba would be persecuted by the regime, led by dictator Fidel Castro.
She told interviewer Mario J. Pentón how she fell for the Hand of God star – who died last November aged 60 – when he was in her homeland in September 2000.
He was ironically doing a drug rehab course and a member of Maradona’s entourage approached her before the pair had a three year affair.
She said: ‘He spent more than an hour convincing me that it was important to help Diego, that he was a world famous figure, a friend of Cuba, and he was depressed.
‘And finally, I accepted.’
Pictured: Alvarez during the TV interview, with a picture of her with Maradona in the background. She claims they first met in Cuba, and begun a three-year relationship
Pictured: Maradona seen in Cuba in 2000, around the time when Ms Alvarez claims they met
She said she was taken to Maradona’s hotel in the seaside resort of Varadero.
It was the first time she had ever even stepped inside a hotel.
At the time Cuban nationals were banned from doing so she pretended to be Italian to get past security.
Mavys said she was greeted by Maradona’s agent Guillermo Cóppola who had come straight out of the shower.
‘I was scared because he was wearing just a towel, and I feared the worst, but a few minutes later, Maradona arrived,’ she added.
Pictured: Maradona walks in the gardens of a hotel in Havana February 2, 2000 as part of his drug treatment regiment
‘He talked a lot, and put me at ease. I liked him. He didn’t try it on. He invited me to join his family for dinner the next night at Palacio Dupont.’
Maradona had gone to Cuba in February 2000 to try and kick his cocaine habit after he went into a drug-induced coma and nearly died in Punta del Este, Uruguay a month earlier.
His ex-wife Claudia Villafañe joined him for the first month, but then returned to Argentina.
Maradona is rumoured to have fallen out with another Cuban girlfriend Laura Cibillo, prompting his entourage to find a new distraction for him and chancing upon Mavys.
He moved the blonde teenager into an apartment at La Pradera health centre in Havana.
‘My mother wasn’t happy about it, and neither was my father,’ she added ‘But at that age you tend to be rebellious and not listen to your parents.
‘Life with Maradona was really crazy. Parties, discos, he took me out for meals. I never thought I would get into drugs, which I found it so hard to get free of.
‘Diego introduced me to drugs when I was still 16.
‘Several times he tried to encourage me, he insisted, he felt alone, and I tried the cocaine to please him. It was the biggest mistake of my life.
‘It was really hard to get off the drugs. I had hallucinations. At one stage I had to go to hospital with dehydration, and I couldn’t even get out of bed to go to the toilet.
‘I tried to kick the cocaine but I couldn’t. It was a spiral when I did manage to get off the drugs I took refuge in alcohol.
‘After all these years I feel ashamed of myself, knowing I was 16, and I was part of all this. But it was another experience in my life. We don’t always choose what happens to us.
‘I was a girl. I wasn’t bad. He was a rich foreigner, and he picked me out. I couldn’t say no. It was a privilege to be his girl.’
Maradona’s off the pitch life was almost as infamous as his achievements on it. he struggled with drug addiction for much of his life, as well as his fame. Pictured: Two women dance with Maradona in Mexico in 2002 on a television show
In 1986, Maradona captained Argentina’s national team, leading them to glory at the World Cup in Mexico (pictured holding the World Cup trophy)
At a time when Cubans were forbidden to travel abroad, but the leader Fidel Castro gave Diego’s girlfriend, then aged 17, special permission to travel for the star’s testimonial match at Boca’s La Bombonera stadium in November 2001.
But Mavys said Diego’s other motive for the visit to Buenos Aires was to arrange for a breast enlargement operation in the South American city famous for its cosmetic surgeons.
She added: ‘I was scared of having the operation in Cuba in case it didn’t go well, and I developed an infection, so he decided to have me operated on in Argentina.
‘I went for 20 days but ended up staying for two and a half months.’
Maradona – who won the World Cup in 1986 – was only married once to Claudia Villafañe but had a string of flings and alleged love children.
He had five legitimate children – Diego Jnr, 34, Dalma, 32, Giannina, 31, Jana, 23 and seven-year-old Diego Fernando.
But he also has seven others claiming they are his offspring as well.
Damaris Maradona, 36, Magali Gil, 25, Eugenia Laprovittola, 25, Santiago Lara, 19 and the ‘Cuban Trio’ of Joana, Lu and Javielito.
Maradona died after a heart attack following brain surgery.
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