Angeles Bejar, the mother of much-criticized Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales, was taken to a hospital on Wednesday two days after starting a hunger strike in support of her son.
Bejar has been suffering from exhaustion and swollen feet, per Sky News. She began the hunger strike on Monday and locked herself in a church in the Spanish town of Motril to do so. She described the widespread condemnation of Rubiales as "inhuman" and initially said her strike would run "indefinitely."
Rubiales has been under fire since Aug. 20, when he forcibly kissed Jennifer Hermoso as she went to collect her winners' medal to celebrate Spain's first-ever Women's World Cup victory. He first described criticism of his actions as "idiocy" before being forced into an apology the following day, but it was deemed insufficient and many called for his resignation. He refused to do so in an emergency meeting called by the federation on Friday, and the condemnation has only grown since.
Hermoso said on Friday that "at no time did I consent to the kiss that he gave me." Rubiales has since been suspended by FIFA for 90 days and is also facing an investigation by Spanish prosecutors.
Though Rubiales' cousin Vanessa Ruiz Bejar said "his family is suffering very much on his behalf" when his mother announced her hunger strike, the president's uncle and former chief of staff Juan is taking a different tone. "All of our family stands with Jenni," Juan Rubiales told Spanish publication El Confidencial in an interview published on Wednesday. He also said the federation president "is obsessed with power, with luxury, and with women. He needs re-education on how to treat women."
Juan Rubiales also went into detail about his claim that Luis Rubiales embezzled money from the federation, most notably when he threw a party in the Andalusian town of Salobreña allegedly using company funds. The elder Rubiales spoke to anti-corruption officials in Spain about the event last September.
"Luis invited me to the party," he said. "There were a lot of teenage girls. I said they could be your daughters and he was losing his mind. Girls who are paid money." Juan Rubiales said he could not rule out the possibility that the teenage girls were underage: "He said they were from clubs. … I don't know what happened there and I don't want to know. I locked myself in my room, I watched football. I could not believe it."
Juan Rubiales also alleged that his nephew deleted every message on his phone related to the party. "He was scared, he thought he would be reported," he said. "He hired a personal detective."
