Rute Cardoso, the wife of former Liverpool forward Diogo Jota, has described the harrowing moment she learned of his death, recalling that she had just sent him a video from their wedding that he never got to see.
Jota and his brother, André Silva, were killed in a car crash in Spain in July 2025, just 11 days after he married his childhood sweetheart. Her account features in a new biography of the former Liverpool forward, which tells the story of his life and career through interviews with family members, team-mates and managers.
The Night of the Accident
Jota and André were travelling back to the UK in a hired Lamborghini when their car crashed on a motorway. Back home in Portugal, Rute initially had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. She had sent her husband a video of a surprise dance she and her bridesmaids had organised for their wedding, eager to share the moment with him.
“At our wedding, my bridesmaids and I had organised a surprise for him – a dance,” she recalled. “On the night of the accident, at around 22:40, the photographer sent me the video of it, which I forwarded to our group chat.”
After receiving messages from friends about how Jota looked like “someone falling in love for the first time”, Rute sent him another message. It said: "When you stop, I’ve got a video to show you." It was delivered, but it was never read.
Growing Anxiety
At first, she was not concerned, knowing Jota was on the road. But when he and André failed to arrive at their planned hotel in Benavente, Spain, her anxiety began to grow. “I sent him another message, just asking, ‘Well?’” she said. This time, the message was not delivered. Rute sent more messages, but none reached him. She then tried contacting André. “That one wasn’t delivered either.”
Rute began to fear the worst, although her sister tried to reassure her that they could simply be in an area with poor phone reception or that their batteries had run out. But the uncertainty brought back deep-rooted fears about her family. “Ever since my eldest son was born, I’ve become afraid of so many things,” she said. “The week before, Diogo and I had talked about it – about the fear the children would be left to fend for themselves if anything were to happen to us. When I realised the messages weren’t being delivered, all that pessimism came flooding back.”
Police Confirmation
Desperate for answers, Rute contacted the hotel, hospitals and Spanish police, but could not establish what had happened to her husband and brother-in-law. She eventually asked her uncle Vítor, a lorry driver, to help. He contacted Spanish traffic police while keeping Rute on the phone. Then she heard him ask the officer: “Yes, two brothers.”
Rute immediately sensed something terrible had happened. The full horror emerged when she overheard her uncle speaking to her brother-in-law. “I heard my uncle tell him: ‘The bodies are being taken away’. I think he added ‘to the mortuary’, but that’s when my mind went blank.”
She added: “I began to realise that it might be true, even though I wanted to believe it was impossible.” A Spanish police officer later confirmed Jota’s death directly to her, bluntly stating: “I hereby declare the death of Diogo José Teixeira da Silva, born on 4 December 1996.”
Despite the confirmation, Rute struggled to accept the devastating news. “I just kept saying to my friend Catarina: ‘This is a joke, it can’t be true. There’s no way in the world this can be true!’”
Her account forms part of a new biography paying tribute to Jota, who was 28 when he died, and the life he shared with his wife and their children. Diogo Jota: Forever In Our Hearts (Reach Sport, £22) is on sale now. Every purchase supports LFC Foundation, with all LFC profits funding a grassroots football programme established in Diogo Jota's name.
