Get on your feet, indeed! While Gloria Estefan was guest cohosting the Today show Friday, she told a story about how her husband, Emilio Estefan, once walked in on the Pope in the bathroom.
The Cuban-born singer joined Al Roker and Sheinelle Jones behind the anchor desk to discuss Amy Schumer‘s recent good deed when she borrowed a mattress store’s bathroom and surprised the helpful employee by buying her the best mattress.
Gloria then said her craziest bathroom story was having to pull over at a toll plaza on the way to the airport in Mexico.
But then she one-upped that with an even crazier tale from her music producer husband, who first rose to fame by her side when they were both in Miami Sound Machine. “He ended up in the bathroom with the Pope in the Vatican by mistake,” she began.
“We were waiting to meet the Pope back in 1995. I had performed for him in the Vatican and Emilio had been — poor thing — not able to go for two, three hours for security,” the seven-time Grammy winner said on NBC. “We get in line for the Pope and he goes, ‘I have to go, I have to go.’”
“I go, ‘Babe, you can’t. Stay. We’re in line for the Pope,’” she continued of preparing to meet Pope John Paul II. But nature called a bit too loudly and Emilio couldn’t wait any longer.
“So he escapes and asks somebody for directions,” Estefan said. “He turned the wrong way and opens a door and who’s waiting there? The Pope.”
Caught in the awkward situation, Emilio reacted on instinct. “He says he didn’t know what to say, so he looks at him and goes, ‘God bless you,’” she said.
Amused by how her husband, who she married in 1978, handled the situation, Estefan says she told him, “I think he’s got that covered.”
