A beloved TV presenter has died aged 50 after battling cancer in secret.
Mabel Montes, who worked in front of the camera for three decades, passed away on Tuesday (20 Jan).
She privately fought a particularly aggressive form of cancer in her final months, reports state.
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While her family have yet to release details about the type of cancer she had, Spanish media said it was pancreatic cancer, which has a high mortality rate.
She stepped back from public activity last year due to health complications, keeping her personal life and treatment out of the spotlight.
Mabel, who came from the small town of Zas in Galicia, north-western Spain, earned her degree in Journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela.
She then began working as a news writer for Televisión de Galicia (TVG), contributing to programmes such as Galicia News and other broadcasts, as reported by Need To Know.
From 2012, she joined the team at O Tempo, TVG’s weather show, where she became one of its most beloved presenters.
The Galician Radio and Television Corporation said she was “committed to her profession, with a clear vocation for rigor and truth”.
They added: “Mabel Montes always practiced journalism with a sense of public service.
“She was a role model, a colleague, and a great friend.”
They said she was “committed to the quality of information and to respecting the audience”.
Mabel spent the final years of her professional career in the newsrooms of TVG and Radio Galega.
In 2024, the committee of the Fouciño Awards, a festival founded in her hometown, chose Mabel as their patron in recognition of her contributions to the media profession.
She was buried in Zas yesterday (21 Jan).
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