Antonio Banderas has opened up about the dramatic lifestyle overhaul that followed his near-fatal heart attack, and nearly a decade on, he has no regrets whatsoever.
The actor, 65, suffered a serious heart attack in 2017 and responded by making sweeping changes almost immediately.
He quit smoking, sold his private jet, left behind a life split between the US and the UK, including a mansion in Cobham, Surrey, and moved back to his hometown of Málaga, Spain.
He also bought a theatre.
“Mine was a really serious warning,” he told The Times in an interview published on Wednesday. “It changed the way I look at life.”
The move forced a moment of genuine self-reflection.
“Faced with death, it made me look back and realise that I am, in fact, a theatre actor,” he explained. That realisation led to the creation of his not-for-profit Teatro del Soho in Málaga, which he describes as his greatest passion.
He now lives in a flat in the city with his longtime girlfriend Nicole Kimpel and owns several restaurants. The contrast with his previous existence could hardly be starker. “I have never been so happy,” he said.
It isn’t the first time Banderas has spoken about the heart attack.
Speaking to Page Six in December 2022, he described it as “one of the best things” that ever happened to him.
“I realised that it probably was one of the best things that ever happened in my life because the things that were not important and I was worried every day about them, meaningless,” he said at the time.
“I was like, why am I worried about that if I’m going to die? I knew always [that I was going to die], but now I know. I’ve seen it right here.”
Banderas was married to Melanie Griffith for 18 years before their divorce in 2015, and credited that relationship with helping him overcome his early insecurities about English not being his first language.
