Jenni Rivera family denies profiting from singer’s death

The family of Jenni Rivera answers those who criticize them for profiting from the singer’s death by saying the money they earn from projects related to the artist goes straight to her nonprofit foundation and to the Diva de la Banda’s five children.

“I want everyone to understand that all the businesses that (Jenni’s sister) Rosie manages as executor, all that is earned, is for the children” of Jenni Rivera, the singer’s mother Rosa Saavedra told EFE, as she described the upcoming TV series about the life of the artist.

Saavedra confessed “it felt ugly” hearing accusations that the family rakes in money from the artist’s death, since the income goes entirely to the children of the songstress and to the Jenni Rivera Love Foundation.

“For better or for worse, my daughter left me no inheritance. She left me nothing. Thank God I can live on what my other children give me,” the singer’s mother said. “What we do is continue with what Jenni dreamed of doing, while guaranteeing her children’s future.”

Saavedra and Rosie are currently working on the production of a miniseries about the life of the Diva de la Banda, produced by Jenni Rivera Enterprises and the Telemundo network.

Though this is not the first or only TV project about the life of the iconic vocalist of Mexican regional music, it is the only one officially approved by the Rivera family, and is expected to air in 2017.

The family said that a few months after the singer was killed in a plane crash in December 2012, a number of companies began making offers for similar projects.

“At the time we weren’t ready to tell Jenni’s story, even less in a telenovela format,” said Rosie, who handles all the business related to her late sister.

They therefore rejected the idea, but even so the U.S. television channel Estrella TV aired a production without their approval. In 2016, interest in the project revived and after several offers, the family went for the Telemundo idea of doing a musical series.

“That was a very hard choice for me,” Rosie said, “but I asked my mom who made the best series and she immediately told me it was Telemundo.”

Relations with that corporation will not be limited to the series, since next Oct. 16 a reality show will premiere on sister channel NBC Universo that will track the lives of the late singer’s children, an announcement this Monday said.

Casting has not begun for the highly prized role of Jenni Rivera, though media have speculated that it might go to Jennifer Lopez, Gloria Trevi, Alicia Machado or Angelica Vale.

Rosie said the goal is to find an actress able to reflect the cultural complexity of the diva, who came to the United States in the belly of her undocumented mother and was born and raised in Long Beach, California. She was very Mexican and very American at the same time.

“We’re going to look for the best Jenni,” Rosie said, adding that auditions will be held all over the country and invited all the imitators of her sister to get ready.