This year, Susanna Griso, who has been on Spanish television for almost thirty years, gave viewers two very different reasons to continue watching. With a 14 percent screen share and over 1.8 million unique viewers in a single broadcast, Espejo Pỹo, the morning show she has anchored since 2006, had one of its best performances of the season in May. She then married them in July.
The ceremony was held at Hostal La Gavina in s’Agaró, on the Costa Brava, a section of coastline that has long drawn wealthy and well-connected Catalans. Before their friendship took a different turn around a year and a half ago, Griso had known businessman and economist Luis Encéquez of Madrid for more than 20 years. There were about 250 attendees, many of whom were journalists, which illustrates how closely Griso’s personal and professional lives have always intersected.
Neither the location nor the guest list were particularly noteworthy, at least to those who closely read the coverage. The eight godparents were involved. A Spanish wedding typically consists of two. This one had eight children: Koudus, a young man she has taken in from Ghana; Griso’s three children; and Encéquez’s four. It’s a minor detail, but it reveals something about how Griso presents her own life—more as an ever-growing household than as a neat story.
She has benefited greatly from her innate tendency toward transparency on television, albeit at a price. Being present in the room—asking the awkward question, sitting across from grieving or controversial guests, and pushing past the scripted moment—was how Griso built her career. When she interviewed Ángel Hernández in 2019, he asked him directly if he had recorded the event in order to sway an election. Hernández had assisted in ending his wife’s suffering following decades of multiple sclerosis. The question was poorly received. Days later, she publicly apologized and acknowledged that she had phrased it incorrectly. It’s the type of situation that can either put an end to a career or, if handled properly, be included on a resume. It was the latter for Griso.
Other mishaps have occurred. She urged viewers to attend the March 8 protests in the early stages of the pandemic, despite the fact that the number of COVID-19 cases was already rising. This call did not hold up well once the scope of the outbreak became apparent. Additionally, lines from a 2013 broadcast involving leaked recordings from the Asunta Basterra case were revealed to have been read by actors rather than appearing in the official transcript. For years, the Spanish media continued to repeat those lines. It serves as a reminder that morning television relies heavily on urgency, which doesn’t always allow for confirmation.
It doesn’t appear to have damaged her reputation. Griso was born in Barcelona in 1969 into a family connected to the Codorníu winery. She attended the Autonomous University of Barcelona to study journalism before making her way through Catalan radio and television before joining Antena 3 in 1998. She has received two Ondas Awards, an Antena de Oro, and recognition for press freedom on a global scale. She also made time for a brief appearance in Money Heist somewhere along that path, which seems almost insignificant in comparison to everything else.
Right now, the timing is intriguing. It’s not the profile of someone winding down, with a new marriage, a newly blended family, and a show still drawing some of its highest numbers in years. If anything, Griso appears to be receiving more attention than she has in a long time going into this next phase, and it’s difficult to avoid wondering if that’s precisely how she likes it.
