“The Power Of Love” was on full display.
Il Divo star Carlos Marin bid his ex-wife farewell via FaceTime when he knew “he wasn’t going to make it” ahead of his tragic death at 53 last week. His former paramour, Geraldine Larrosa, dropped the heartbreaking bombshell while arriving at the Spanish baritone’s private wake in Madrid on Monday, the Daily Mail reported.
“Before being intubated he said goodbye to me because he knew he wasn’t going to pull through and it was the saddest image in my life,” recalled a tearful Larrosa, 44.
Known by her stage name Innocence, Larrosa has reportedly remained very close to Marin despite their 2009 divorce. “He called me and told me he loved me like mad and that I was the woman of his life and asked me to take care of his family,” she said.
“We had survived the pandemic and in the end the pandemic has taken him from me,” added the bereaved ex-lover, who was accompanied to the funeral home by family members, including her 9-year-old daughter Scarlett and new partner, Sergio Arce, who is also Marin’s godson. The private service’s other attendees reportedly included Carlos’ sister Rosa, his mother Magdalena Menchero along with Carlos’ Il Divo bandmates David Miller, Sebastian Izambard and Urs Buhler. The funeral home has since been opened up to fans wishing to pay their last respects to Marin.
Larrosa’s heartrending reveal comes after the “Right Here Waiting” singer passed away on Dec. 19 in Manchester following a UK tour. And while details surrounding his death were hazy at the time, Marin’s sister Rosa recently revealed that Marin had contracted the Delta variant of COVID, which had infected his lungs, and prompted doctors to place the star into a medically induced coma. Larrosa had reportedly flown to the UK after hearing that the star’s condition had deteriorated.
Following his passing, the pop star penned an emotional Twitter tribute to her late former soulmate, writing that “Carlos Marin has been and will always be the great love of my life.”
Marin first achieved international acclaim when he was just a kid, recording two albums before he turned 13 and performing in front of large audiences. By the 1990s, the prodigy was starring in hit Broadway musicals such as “Les Misérables,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Grease” and “Peter Pan.”
Marin later caught the eye of “American Idol’s” Simon Cowell, who said he wanted to create a multinational classical quartet — after listening to pop-opera stars Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman’s duet rendition of “Con Te Partirò.”
Thus, Il Divo was born and the band quickly skyrocketed to fame with their 2005 debut self-titled album selling 5 million copies — smashing Led Zeppelin’s 25-year-old record of being the only band to achieve a No. 1 album without a single release. The prodigious group went on to produce 10 studio albums, hitting No. 1 in 13 countries and selling more than 30 million units worldwide.
In 2013, Il Divo made their Broadway debut in a successful production that inspired The Post to report: “Assembled 10 years ago by Simon Cowell in what may well have been a laboratory, the four combine gorgeous singing with a kind of Disney-prince handsomeness that had most of the women in the audience snapping away with their cellphones.”
Marin’s final work, a pre-recorded New Year’s Eve performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Larrosa for Spanish TV, is slated to air despite his untimely death.
His ex describes the deceased vocalist as the most “kind-hearted person in the world, the greatest artist in Spain and the whole world.”
“I’m going to carry on fighting for his dreams and the dreams we had together,” she pledged. “I don’t want the world to forget him.”