"Demandé a Televisa y les gané”: La verdad detrás del fraude a Timbiriche con Diego Schoening

Recap

In this candid interview, Timbiriche founding member Diego Schoening looks back on a career that began when he was just seven—and on the harsh realities behind the group’s enormous success. He says the members were rigorously trained as performers but were not prepared to manage money or business. According to Diego, they received no performer royalties, and their pay for shows was tiny compared with what the shows were reportedly sold for. Many agreements were verbal, and their parents’ jobs at Televisa made it difficult to challenge the system.

Diego says he eventually sued Televisa during Timbiriche’s second reunion—and won—but withdrew rather than risk leaving more than 100 people working on the tour without income. The dispute damaged his relationship with the company, and he later found it difficult to get work in Mexico, prompting his move to the United States.

The interview also traces how Timbiriche took shape. Diego describes an intensive children’s training program that included singing, dance, acting, emotional expression, and even learning how to stage and direct scenes. The group grew out of a children’s musical and later opened for the popular Spanish group Parchís. Diego recalls the camaraderie among the young performers and the group’s evolution as members came and went, including Thalía joining during its breakthrough years.

The cost of growing up in show business comes through in his stories of exhaustion: one TV special was filmed in 24 hours without sleep, and Timbiriche’s production of Grease ran for 700 performances while the cast continued going to school. There were funny mishaps, too. As a little boy, Diego dismantled a rented television because he thought tiny people lived inside it. Onstage, he once fell about three metres while singing and carried on with the song. He also tells an embarrassing tour story about performing in oversized trousers without underwear.

Diego is frank about his years of partying and alcohol and drug use, and says he eventually realized he needed help. He credits his father, a psychologist, and his own discipline with helping him recover. He contrasts that turbulent period with the stability he has built with his wife, whom he married in 1998, and their children. Today, he says, being a present husband and father matters more to him than the excesses of fame.

The conversation closes on a warm, comic note: Diego and host Nayo swap stories about forgetting Timbiriche lyrics onstage and a wardrobe mishap under the group’s famously baggy trousers. Throughout the interview, Diego is affectionate toward his bandmates but clear-eyed about the exploitation, pressure, and personal sacrifices behind the nostalgia.

Personalities Featured

• Diego Schoening — Timbiriche member and interview guest
• Nayo Escobar — Host and interviewer