Muri Assunção
New York Daily News
A well-known journalist in Spain went from commenting on the news to becoming a popular gossip headline this week.
According to Spanish media, 41-year-old Alfonso Merlos was participating in the “Estado de Alarma” YouTube channel when viewers noticed a semi-naked woman, who didn’t appear to be his girlfriend, passing by the background.
The Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia later named the woman as 27-year-old journalist Alexia Rivas.
The video led to accusations that Merlos was cheating on his girlfriend Marta L\u00f3pez, a contestant of the show “Big Brother,” but he insisted that they were no longer together.
After the video went viral, L\u00f3pez said that episode was “shameful.”
“It’s a very unpleasant situation,” she told LaVanguardia. “I know exactly who he is.”
The controversial incident became known in social networks as “Melros Place,” as a nod to the 1990s hit Aaron Spelling drama-filled prime-time soap opera “Melrose Place.”
On Monday Merlos publicly apologized on the television show “El programa de Ana Rosa,” where he works as a contributor.
“If you think that my attitude has not been correct or that there are things that I have not done well, I have no problem asking for forgiveness, although my goal was not to harm someone else,” he said.
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