Larissa Manoela Family Controversy

Overview

The Larissa Manoela Family Controversy refers to the story of 22-year-old Brazilian actress Larissa Manoela, who has an extensive 18-year acting career, giving up more than 18 million BRL (around $3 million USD) in assets she has accumulated because of a fight with her parents. Manoela's family feud was widely broadcasted on TV, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, inspiring criticism and backlash towards her mother and father, who managed her entire professional career until early 2023.

Background

The first indicator that the Brazilian actress was going through family issues occurred on January 2nd, 2023, as netizens noticed Silvana Taques Santos, mother of actress Larissa Manoela, unfollowed her daughter and son-in-law on social media.^[1] At the time, Manoela denied any problem with her mother or the family saying, "My family is my base, my safe haven."

A few months later, on May 11th, Larissa Manoela announced that she would be taking control of her business demands and her career, which was formerly managed by her mother until December 2022.

As a response to her public statement, her father, Gilberto Elias, posted a motivational quote on his Instagram, which many of the actress' fans interpreted as a way to criticize his daughter's decision. The post^[2] shared Larissa's father (shown below) says, “Feed a dog for three days and it will remember you for thirty years. Feed a human for thirty years and he will forget you in three days."

Developments

Larissa Manoela Fantástico Interview

On August 13th, 2023, Larissa Manoela spoke about his parents in an exclusive interview for the Fantástico show, a Brazilian weekly television news program broadcast on TV Globo. The interview became such a prominent topic for Brazilians that it raised Fantástico's audience numbers and was highly commented on on social media.

The full interview was uploaded on YouTube^[3] on August 14th by G1, garnering roughly 258,000 views and 21,000 likes in five hours (shown below).

In the interview, Manoela told her side of the story, detailing that the family was having disagreements since she turned 18. She also declared that she did not have any control or liberty to use her own money, saying, "Any type of payment, whether it was an airline ticket, the purchase of something more superfluous, I had to ask for [their] authorization.”

Larissa finished the interview by saying she decided to give up a heritage estimated at R$ 18 million BRL (around $3 million USD) and that she left everything to her parents.

Online Reactions

After Manoela's father's indirect message post via Instagram became a trending topic on social, numerous netizens started to label the actress's parents as "narcissists" and "selfish," as they wouldn't have any financial benefit over her career.

For instance, on May 12th, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @yankisner tweeted about Larissa's parent behavior by saying, "Very PATHETIC to see Larissa Manoela's NARCISIST parents publicly turn against her just because they no longer control her money. This girl has been working since she was 4 years old, she has had her image EXPLORED her whole life, is it okay to let her live in peace?" The post (shown below) amassed over 168,000 likes and 9,600 retweets in four months.

Months later, the Fantástico interview instigated an online debate over the events of the actress' family drama. For instance, on August 14th, 2023, Twitter^[5] user @paiva uploaded an image of the Life Thinking meme in which every panel he references a shocking fact about Manoela's story. The post (shown below, left) received over 14,200 likes and 2,800 retweets in less than 24 hours.

On August 13th, Twitter^[6] user @luscas posted an image macro of a man offering corn and ice cream to a woman, which is related to a moment in Larissa's interview she mentions not having money to pay for corn while she was at the beach. The post (shown below, right) garnered over 20,400 likes and 2,200 retweets in roughly one day.

On August 14th, Twitter^[7] user @luis7md also mocked the "corn at the beach" event, posting a video of a kitten to represent the actress after someone sent her money to enjoy her corn. The post (seen below) garnered over 548,000 views and 13,000 likes in a few hours.

Em situação de zumbi por causa de fofoca, Larissa Manoela você me paga assim que tiver dinheiro pro pix! pic.twitter.com/cWt6QosKEU

— luís (@luis7md) August 14, 2023

Search Interest

External References