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Brazil's president credits his wife ‘Janja’: ‘In love as if I were 20 years old’
Brazil Lula da Silva: Da Silva married Lula, 77, a twice-widowed cancer survivor, in May.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva credits his wife of mere months, Rosangela da Silva, with giving him new life.
Da Silva, a 56-year-old sociologist and left-wing activist widely known by her nickname "Janja," was front-and-center in her husband's election campaign and in planning his inauguration on Sunday.
She has injected fervor and much affection into the job, tenderly holding her husband's victory speech as he addressed a sea of euphoric supporters after his October election victory, and organizing a major music party for some 300,000 expected to join Sunday's celebrations.
Da Silva married Lula, 77, a twice-widowed cancer survivor, in May.
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"I am as in love as if I were 20 years old," the president has said of his wife, a long-time member of his Workers' Party.
Their age difference seems to have breathed new energy into Lula, whose first wife, Maria de Lourdes, died in 1971. In 2017, he lost his second wife of four decades, Marisa Leticia Rocco, to a stroke.
"When you lose your wife, and you think, well, my life has no more meaning, suddenly a person appears who makes you feel like you want to live again," he told Time magazine in an interview published just before he remarried.
The septuagenarian politician links his political rebirth to his late-life love affair.
"I'm here, standing strong, in love again, crazy about my wife," he told the crowd Sunday. "She's the one who will give me strength to confront all obstacles."
