Vicente Fernandez, a popular Mexican entertainer who lived by the nickname "King of Rancheras," has died. He was 81.
Multiple Mexican news outlets confirmed the tragic passing of Fernandez after his family released an official statement announcing his death.
His family members disclosed that Fernandez died on Sunday in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, through the performer's official Instagram account. They also paid tribute to him and wrote a heartfelt message in Spanish, celebrating his life following his passing.
"It was an honor and a great pride to share with everyone a great musical career and to give everything for his audience," part of the post said, as translated by USA Today. "Thank you for continuing to applaud, thank you for continuing to sing."
Fernandez's son, Vicente Fernandez Jr., also took his heartbreak in another post featuring a photo of them smiling together. He then thanked the patriarch for "everything" in the same update.
Noticias Telemundo also shared the news with fans.
As of the writing, Vicente Fernandez's exact cause of death remains unknown. However, it is worth noting that he went through a lot of health issues before his passing.
What Happened To Vicente Fernandez?
In the past years, Fernandez faced tragic health scares after suffering from different accidents and issues.
Most recently, the entertainer - who is also widely known as "El Rey de la Musica Ranchera," suffered a fall that left him with a spinal cord injury. In August, he received surgery at a hospital in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he was put on "ventilatory assistance and in critical patient care in the intensive care units."
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In 2019, he learned he had a cancerous lump in his liver back in 2012. Despite knowing that, he controversially declined to undergo a liver transplant as he was concerned his donor could be a homosexual or an addict. Fernandez opted to remove the lump instead.
He even addressed it during his appearance on a Mexican TV program, "De Primera Mano."
"They wanted to give me some other man's liver, and I told them 'I'm not going to sleep next to my wife with another man's liver," he said.
The following year, he suffered from pulmonary thrombosis - a medical event wherein a blood clot forms in a blood vessel in the body, often in the leg, before traveling to a lung artery.
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