Charo Net Worth

Published 7 months ago / updated 3 months ago - 7 min read

Net Worth	$ 60,000,000
Source of Wealth	Singing / Acting / Playing the guitar
Profession	Singer, Comedian, Flamenco guitarist, Actress
Spouse/Partner	Single
Date of Birth	Jan 15, 1951
Zodiac	Capricorn
Age	72
Gender	Female
Pronoun	She/Her
Height	163 cm / 5 ft 4 inch
Nationality	Spanish
Siblings	/

Charo's net worth is estimated at $60 million 💵

Biography

Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza, more known by her stage name Charo is a Spanish-American singer, comedian, actress, and flamenco guitarist who became famous because of her bubbly, enthusiastic and vibrant persona to expert comedic advantage.

Charo’s net worth is estimated at over $60 million as of 2022.

Charo’s fame exploded with the “Cuchi-Cuchi” trademark phrase, and she was immediately labeled as the ‘cuchi-cuchi’ girl, becoming a sensation in the ’60s and 70s’.

Besides being known as the bombshell "cuchi" girl, Charo was also famous for being one of the best flamenco guitar players in the world.

Early life

Charo, whose real name is Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baueza, was born in Molina de Segura, Murcia, Spain. Her mother was a housewife, and her father was a lawyer, and their names remain unknown to the public. The thing we sure know of is that she had only one sibling, her older sister, Carmen Martinez Molina.

Charo started playing guitar at the age of nine. There is still no record of her official education except for taking private classes for classical guitar from Andres Segovia.

Career

Charo’s long career is evident throughout the years, so we gathered pretty much all of her work down below [1]

Album discography

1977 - Cuchi-Cuchi
1978 - Ole Ole
1981 - Bailando con Charo (Dancing with Charo)
1994 - Guitar (Passion)
1997 - Gusto (Pleasure)
2005 - Charo and Guitar

Singles

1976 - La Salsa
1977 - Dance a Little Bit Closer
1978 - Mamacita, ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus? - (Mommy, where is Santa Claus?)
1978 - Ole Ole
1979 - Sha Na Na
1979 - Stay with Me
1979 - Hot Love
1981 - LaMojada (Wet Back)
2003 - Prisionera De Tu Amor
2008 - España Cani
2011 - Sexy Sexy
2013 - Dance a Little Bit Closer

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Films

1963 - New Friendship
1967 - The Big Mouth
1970 - Tiger by the Tail
1970 - Elvis: That’s the Way it is
1979 - The Concorde …. Airport ‘79
1988 - Moon Over Parador
1994 - Thumbelina
1996 - Blame it on the Macarena!
2017 - Sharknado 5: Global Swarming
2021 - The Bitch Who Stole Christmas

TV

1965 - The Danny Kaye Show
1965-67 - The Ed Sullivan Show
1973 - The Carol Burnett Show
1975 - The Sher Show
1975 - The Cher Show
1976 - Donny & Marie
1976 - The Hollywood Squares
1976 - The Charo Show
1977-1978 Chico and the Man
1977–84 - The Love Boat
1978-79 Flying High
1981-84 Fantasy Island
1985 - The Facts of Life
1985 - The Jeffersons
1988 - Marblehead Manor
1988 - Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special
2000 - That '70s Show
2001 - The Brak Show
2004 - The Surreal Life
2006 - So NoTORIous
2006 - I Love the '70s: Volume 2
2006 - Chappelle's Show
2008 - Viva Hollywood!
2008 - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
2008 - Chelsea Lately
2008 - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
2010 - RuPaul's Drag Race
2010 The Suite Life on Deck
2010 - The Wendy Williams Show
2013 - Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23
2015 - Hell's Kitchen
2015 - Celebrity Wife Swap
2016 - Jane The Virgin
2016 - RuPaul's Drag Race
2017 - Dancing With the Stars
2020 - RuPaul's Drag Race

Being considered one of the best flamenco guitar players in the world, Charo got the Best Female Album of the Year at the Latin Grammy and won the Female Pop Album of the Year award at the Billboard International Latin Music Conference. Also, she was named Best Flamenco Guitarist in a reader’s poll by Guitar Player magazine^[2]for two years.

Also important, Charo is famous because she is considered one of the world’s best flamenco guitar players.

Most famous

Charo is best known for her sassiness, sexy outfits, and her signature catchphrase in the 70s’ “Cuchi-Cuchi.” However, that is not the only thing she is famous for as she also became popular for her comic appearance in TV shows, acting in films, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aH_hS_AVuA

What is Charo’s ‘Cuchi-Cuchi’ catchphrase?

In conversational Spanish, the “Cuchi-Cuchi” catchphrase has humorously sexual overtones.

However, Charo claims that she invented the phrase to honor her beloved family dog Cuchillo, meaning ‘knife’ in Spanish. Her cute dog got the nickname Cuchi Cuchi because of the peculiar way he shimmied from one side to the other when he walked.

Charo’s trademark phrase, “cuchi-cuchi” was usually accompanied by a wiggle of the hips.

Relationships

Currently, Charo is single, but she was married twice. Her first husband was Xavier Cugat^[3] , a Latin bandleader and a “Rumba King” who helped her start her career in America.

Charo was either 15 or 16 when she married the 66-year-old Xavier, and she said that she only married Cugat to get into the United States.

After she divorced Cugat on April 14, 1978, she married her second husband, Swedish film producer Kjell Rasten, on August 11, 1978, who committed suicide in 2019 at the age of 78. Charo and Kjell have only one son, Shel Rasten, the drummer for the heavy metal band Treazen.

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Specific info

The most controversial thing about Charo is her birth year, and people still debate it. Her Spanish birth certificate, passport, and American naturalization documents state that her birth date is the 13th of March, 1941, though she always claimed to be at most ten years younger than that.

When Charo entered the USA, she claimed that there was a mistake and that she was born in 1947, which she later changed to 1949. Another funny thing is that in a court hearing in 1977, she stated that the birth date in her passport and other documents was incorrect and that her birthdate was January 15, 1951.

Some interesting facts you probably did not know about Charo

She knows how to speak Japanese.
She joined a convent at the age of four because her parents wanted her to get a pious education, but one of the nuns noticed her talents and told her she was meant for show business, not the convent.
She is very close with her family, and in the 80s, she lived with 14 family members on a large compound in Beverly Hils, California.
Because of being a star in the late 70s and early 80s’ Charo did want to get pregnant at the time - when she found out she was pregnant, she was shocked and did not tell anyone about it ‘till the end of the first trimester.
Her grandparents helped her develop her musical talent by hiring a teacher.
She is rather fluent in English and also in French and other languages.

Conclusion

Charo’s talents are evident as she tried almost anything to be up on that stage and perform as a singer, actress, or comedian. If you gather all of her gifts and her consistency in show business, you can conclude why she is now estimated at over $60 million. Above all, her overall versatile persona is responsible for all of that success.

One thing is sure, Charo is ageless because we’ll never truly know her actual birth date.

FAQ

How old was Charo when she got married?

The answer to this question is connected to her actual birth year. So, if her now-official birth year is true, she was 16 years old when she married Xavier Cugat, and she was younger than him by 40 years.

How old is Charo’s son, Shel Rasten?

Shel Rasten is 40 years old.

References

Charo (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charo (Accessed: October 31, 2022)
Staff, G.P. (2020) 50 sensational female guitarists, Guitar Player. GuitarPlayer. Available at: https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/50-sensational-female-guitarists (Accessed: October 31, 2022).
Xavier Cugat (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Cugat (Accessed: October 31, 2022).