Eduardo Sánchez Junco

Who was Eduardo Sánchez Junco?

Eduardo Sánchez Junco spent his childhood in Barcelona, where his father, Antonio Sánchez Gómez, was the editor of newspaper La Prensa. It was there, in their living room at home, that Eduardo’s father and mother, Mercedes Junco Calderón, came up with the idea of a magazine showing life at its most beautiful, through reporting that would be both respectful and truthful. And so, on 8 September 1944, ¡Hola! was born. Since then, it has become a publishing empire in a class of its own.

Eduardo, just a year old when the magazine was launched, grew up surrounded by the tools of the trade, but his own interests focussed at first not on publishing, but on nature. He studied agricultural engineering. But while he always maintained a strong interest in this subject, he also felt drawn to his parents’ profession, and joined his father at work on ¡Hola!, by then already a household name.

Following his father’s death in 1984, Eduardo took over the helm of the business. He chose to do so in the most hands-on way, as a journalist. While bringing up their three children – daughters Mamen and Cheleles, and son Eduardo – he and his wife, Mamen Pérez Villota, together studied for degrees in journalism.