Ex-actress sues husband for domestic violence

A former movie and television actress has filed a case against her Spanish husband, who allegedly physically abused her and forcibly took their two children from her.

Anna Margarita Gonzalez, one of the stars of the defunct “That’s Entertainment” show, charged Jose Fernandez Cuervo of violating Republic Act 9292, which prohibits violence against women and their children, before the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court.

Also named respondents in the case were Cuervo’s two sisters – Montserrat and Maria Antonia, who reportedly connived with Cuervo in denying Gonzalez custody and access to her minor children.

Gonzalez, a daughter of 1960s matinee idol Jose Mari Gonzalez, said that it was after she gave birth to her youngest child in 2004 that her husband started to restrict her actions.

She surmised that Cuervo could have been envious of her work because she is reportedly earning “100 times more than him.” Gonzalez had taken up interior design at the American College of London and has several clients and projects.

Gonzalez said their quarrels over money then became frequent, and he often “physically harmed me by way of choking, grabbing my arms, and then he forced me to take a pill that made me incoherent and senseless. I always end up in a hospital.”

She added that her hospitalizations coincided with her husband’s withdrawals of millions of pesos as he would make her sign withdrawal slips while she was under heavy medication.

Gonzalez also claimed that her husband was diagnosed by a doctor to be suffering from impulse control disorder.

She said she later found out that upon her husband’s orders, the maids would lace her breakfast with a powdery substance that would make her groggy and incoherent.

During the latter part of 2007, Gonzalez found out that her husband left the country together with her two children – a seven-year-old boy and a girl, five.

She also said she discovered that Cuervo’s sisters arranged for his illegal departure for Madrid, Spain, bringing with him their children. Montserrat and Maria Antonia are said to be working for the Spanish embassy.