Mónica Cruz Bio
Mónica Cruz Sánchez is a well-known Spanish actress and dancer famous for her roles in the films, Iron Cross and Jerry Cotton. Apart from it, Cruz has toured with the Joaquin Cores flamenco dance company for seven years.
Mónica Cruz Age
Mónica Cruz was born on 16 March 1977. She is currently 42 years old as per 2019.
Mónica Cruz Family
Cruz was born in the working-class town of Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain, the daughter of Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser, and Eduardo Cruz, a retailer and auto mechanic. Throughout her childhood, she lived in Alcobendas. She is the middle child of three; older sister Penélope Cruz is an actress, and younger brother Eduardo is a singer.
Her parents divorced in 1999, and her father remarried Carmen Moreno in 2003. Moreno gave birth to a girl, Salma Cruz, on 24 February 2012.
Penélope and Mónica distinguished themselves as promising young dancers and both received professional instruction; Penélope attended Spain’s National Conservatory while Mónica enrolled in The Royal Academy of Dance to study traditional ballet and flamenco.
Mónica Cruz
Mónica Cruz Husband
Monica Cruze has not married yet. She has been in a relationship with a few guys. She dated Miguel Ángel Muño from 2002-2005. From 2005-2006, she was in a relationship with Fabián Mazzei. Apart from it, she has dated Paolo for four years from 2006 t0 2010 and from 2011 to 2013, she dated Álex González.
Mónica Cruz Daughter
Cruze is now a single mother taking care of her daughter, Antonella Cruz Sánchez who was born on May 14, 2013. Cruz has a straight sexual orientation.
Mónica Cruz Career
Upon graduating from the academy, Cruz joined Joaquín Cortés’ flamenco dance company. She stayed with the company for seven years until, in 2002, she left dancing to pursue a career as an actress. In 2005, she starred in the Spanish television show Un Paso Adelante alongside Beatriz Luengo, Miguel Ángel Muñoz, Pablo Puyol and Silvia Marty.
In 2010, her sister Penélope was pregnant while filming scenes for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Towards the latter half of shooting, her pregnancy was quite apparent, so the filmmakers had to figure methods of shooting around it. This included shooting Penélope in close up scenes while hiring Mónica to stand-in for long distance scenes due to her identical appearance to her sister.
In 2017, Cruz appeared in the music video for British band Jamiroquai’s “Cloud 9” on their album Automaton. She also took part in Spanish television series called Velvet Colección, where she plays Carmela Cortés, a gypsy flamenco dancer. She shot the second season at the end of 2018.
Mónica Cruz Movies and TV Shows
1. Un Paso Adelante
2. The Inquiry
3. Asterix at the Olympic Games
4. All Inclusive
5. Last Hour
6. Iron Cross
7. Jerry Cotton
8. 9 Meses
9. Velvet Colección
Mónica Cruz Velvet
‘Velvet collection’: Mónica Cruz will be part of the second season of the Bamboo series. After his departure from ‘El hormiguero’, the rumors put the actress out of the new chapters of the spin-off of the hit series.
Mónica Cruz Penelope Cruz
Penelope Cruz and her sister Monica are set to design a line of clothing together for cheap retail outlet Mango in Spain. The article says it’s the Spanish equivalent of H&M, but I’ve also seen that chain in Germany.
Mónica Cruz and Penelope Cruz
It’s one of those stores that’s full of cheaply made clothes that teens and 20-somethings would wear out. I’ve tried a few things on, but it’s always in vain because they didn’t fit well and seemed made for stick figures and/or girls who don’t mind wearing super-tight revealing clothing.
I guess it might not turn out so bad. I’m not a fan of H&M, either. To me, those are the type of clothes that always look better on the hanger and end up being disappointing one you try them on.
Mónica Cruz Net Worth
Mónica Cruz is a Spanish dancer and actress who has a net worth of $10 million dollars.
Mónica Cruz Instagram
Mónica Cruz Interview
Monica Cruz: ‘I chose to have a baby alone, so I don’t need the perfect man’
Mónica Cruz – the sister of Hollywood star Penélope – is leaning back in a chair in her agent’s office in Madrid, breastfeeding her one-year-old daughter Antonella. Dressed in a now unbuttoned top, jeans and wedge trainers, she is strikingly similar to her elder sibling – who won an Oscar for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and is married to Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
The two sisters – dancers turned actresses and designers, who are perhaps the most celebrated beauties in their country after Queen Letizia – could almost pass as twins. Mónica, 37, has a smaller nose and softer features than Penélope. And there is an insouciance about her, which probably comes from being part of one of Spain’s premier celebrity families (younger brother Eduardo is a singer and music composer who once dated Eva Longoria).
Mónica, who switches between broken English and rapid Spanish, softens around Antonella, who was conceived via an anonymous sperm donor that they will never be able to trace – a decision that was five years in the making and made headlines worldwide. Once the nursing is complete – ‘I am hoping to do it for two years,’ she tells me – Antonella is taken upstairs to be cared for by Mónica’s mother Encarna, who is a constant presence in their lives.
Mónica, Antonella and their dogs – a tiny Maltese and a big ‘street dog’ – live in the Madrid suburb where the Cruz children grew up, next door to Encarna, a hairdresser, and Mónica’s father Eduardo, a tradesman. Brother Eduardo, Penélope and Javier, and their two children visit frequently from LA.
We have met to discuss Mónica’s role as the face of Agent Provocateur’s new fragrance Fatale, ‘based on the concept of the femme fatale’, she tells me. Agent Provocateur proposed the collaboration, as Mónica and Penélope had been successfully designing a lingerie line for the label for over a year, and they saw her as the perfect embodiment of their sultry scent.
Inspired by the 1940s Hollywood femme fatale, the sensual and elegant fragrance combines enticing top notes of mango and pink pepper with intense floral heart notes including gardenia and patchouli.
But, despite the naughty bondage theme of the campaign photos in which she features, Mónica says, ‘For me, the femme fatale is not only about the idea of seduction or the traditional vixen, it is much more; it is about that special intuition that women possess. It is a soul all women can have. The magic of a woman in all her complexity – a woman who is hardworking, independent, a fighter… That is a femme fatale.’
And that, it seems, is also Mónica. Not many women – finding themselves over 35 and single – would have the courage to take on motherhood alone. ‘I don’t think this makes me brave,’ she insists. ‘Why is it braver to be a single mother versus being with a partner? Being in a couple and having a child could be more challenging because there might be a conflict if the male partner cannot understand the extreme attachment a woman feels when she has a child.’
She has a point – most mothers would agree that having a newborn does not represent a high point in marital relations. ‘It was not a decision I took on a whim, but once I had thought about it – and investigated – I knew it had to happen. Being a mother was too important to me to risk running out of time.’
After the news of her pregnancy broke, Mónica made a statement on her blog for Spanish newspaper El País to dispel the ‘who’s-the-daddy?’ speculation, announcing that she had been artificially inseminated. ‘I want to talk openly about it because this is an opportunity to show my gratitude to all those anonymous donors who help women like me to meet the dream of their life,’ she wrote.
And what was the reaction to this – with Spain being a Catholic country? ‘Of course, there have been people for and against,’ Mónica admits, ‘but that doesn’t matter to me. What matters is that my daughter is surrounded by love. I believe in the right to go down the path that feels best for you. I needed to find my daughter in this way.’
Mónica’s bold admission going viral must have also consoled many that even very beautiful women struggle to find love. ‘Yes,’ she laughs. ‘That is true. It’s not about what you look like.’ She says she is ‘not worried’ anymore about finding the ‘perfect’ man. If anything, having Antonella has helped, she says, to focus her mind, ‘because now I know I have to choose someone who would be right for me and for her. It would have to be a very special man.’
Mónica has certainly created a life that many men must be queuing to join – her utter lack of neediness probably serving as a further attraction. ‘I chose to do this alone, so, for me, it hasn’t been a difficult transition having Antonella,’ she says. ‘It has been about using my maternal intuition and remembering that being a mother is an act of total generosity: it’s not all about you anymore. It feels like something has opened up in me and at the same time, there are so many more fears and an instinct to protect.
This first year has flown by. I feel lucky and better for myself. It is amazing how someone so small can teach you so much.’ The experience is one she says she definitely hopes to repeat. With a sperm donor again, I ask? ‘I don’t discard the idea. If I don’t find the right man to share a family with, then why not?’
When the time comes, Mónica says, ‘I will be very natural in how I talk with Antonella about how she came to be. I have never worried about that. Even if she doesn’t ask, I will explain as much as I can. I don’t want her to feel we are some sort of “special” family, because I don’t believe that exists. When you treat things with an air of it being natural, then you don’t create a trauma.’
Her family has, Mónica says, given her every support. ‘They knew how much it meant to me to become a mother and they have been there for me, without judgment. My sister is not the type to force her advice on me, but being older and already having two children, she is the expert, so of course, I ask her about viruses and that type of thing! My mother helped me to wean Antonella and to do everything. I have no nanny.
I had one once and it bothered me. I take Antonella with me everywhere. It is hard to leave her,’ she admits. ‘But at the same time I want to give her that same example that my mother gave me – of a hard-working, independent, strong woman, so I might have to find more help.’
Much of Mónica’s childhood took place in her mother’s hairdressing salon. ‘It felt like being in a Pedro Almodóvar film every day,’ she says, referring to the famed Spanish director and screenwriter whose melodramatic comedies include Volver (starring Penélope, his muse) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. ‘I love Pedro; he has the ability to understand women – their reality and rawness – in a way that I think is magical.
‘The world of women fascinates me, probably because my sister and I were always together as children in our mother’s salon, after school, and after ballet classes. We used to talk about what we saw: the different ladies who would come in, all with their distinctive personalities. The salon was like a psychiatrist’s office – it was a marvelous education.
These women would confide in our mother about their lives and their problems. Like I said about the perfume Fatale, the interesting part is not the illusion of a sexy woman; it is the truth of women that Pedro is so good at expressing.’
Mónica and Penélope are immensely close: ‘Sometimes we share clothes. I’ll just say, “I’m taking that.”’ And there is their ongoing collection for Agent Provocateur, which is very much a family affair – brother Eduardo composed the music for a short film that Penélope directed to promote the line.
The sisters also collaborated on a sellout line for Mango and are currently designing handbags for Spanish label Loewe. ‘It’s easy for us to work together. With one look, we instantly know what the other is thinking. We often come up with exactly the same idea, without having discussed it first. And we can be more honest with one another.’
It would be easy to dismiss Mónica as a ‘sister-of’ who jumped on the ‘design-a-label’ bandwagon. But she impresses me with her explanation of how a passion for design grew out of her years of professional dancing. A trained ballerina, she started dancing at the age of four. Aged 17, she joined renowned flamenco dancer Joaquín Cortes’s dance troupe, traveling the world. After that, she was snapped up to appear in the Spanish TV series Un Paso Adelante, which enabled her to combine her passion for dancing with acting.
‘Dancing is my first passion,’ Mónica says, ‘but it is not so different from design. Dance is about telling a story with your body, and that is what fashion does too.’ At the moment, though, she has little time for it. ‘I have not worn heels since the day I found out I was pregnant,’ she grins, adding that she usually opts for Zara and Mango over expensive clothes.
Though she does have some alluring Agent Provocateur corsets for nights off from motherhood and likes to spritz herself with Fatale, to feel sexy even when covered in the purées that she spends much of her time making for Antonella.
She hopes to encourage her daughter to love the world of dance. ‘It teaches a wonderful discipline and that discipline stays with you. My sister and I talk all the time about how much it has helped us.’
And the Cruz sisters certainly are a tour de force. Mónica blushes when I say this. ‘We were taught by our parents to be strong. I think it is so important to never lose that sense of who you are and what you are fighting for – even if, you never know, one day you have a partner or something…’