Official TVI poster for the telenovela Coração de Mãe, showing the lead cast and a September premiere date

Entertainment 4 September 2026

Joana Solnado returns to TVI on Monday, in a drama built around domestic violence

"Coração de Mãe" starts on 7 September, replacing "Terra Forte", and lands on TVI Player and Prime Video the same day. Diogo Morgado and Paulo Rocha share the lead.

TVI has a date for its next big bet on Portuguese drama. “Coração de Mãe” premieres on 7 September, a Monday, taking the slot held by “Terra Forte”. It is a Plural Entertainment production filmed in Lisbon, and it arrives on the channel, on TVI Player and on Prime Video at the same time.

The casting brings Joana Solnado back to the station as a lead, alongside Diogo Morgado and Paulo Rocha. The scripts are by Sara Sampaio Simões, Elisabete Moreira and Ricardo Silveirinha.

The story

Linda da Silva raised two children, Guga and Verónica, inside a marriage marked by domestic violence. For years she said nothing in order to protect them, until she realised that staying was condemning them too. After reporting her husband, her life crosses with João, a police officer who becomes her support. The calm does not last: Guga, trying to stop another assault, kills his father and is arrested.

That is heavy material for a prime-time slot, and TVI is presenting it as a story about unconditional love rather than about the crime. It is worth being plain about it: domestic violence drives the plot, it is not background detail.

Why it matters to the channel

Eight o’clock drama still defines the evening for a Portuguese general-interest channel, and TVI is coming off a year in which the conversation about the station has been about its presenters more than its stories, as this year’s summer party showed. A new telenovela with three familiar leads and same-day release on an international platform is the obvious answer.

Whether it works will be clear inside a fortnight. It always is.

If any of this touches your own situation, Portugal’s national domestic violence helpline is 800 202 148, free and available around the clock.

By Lucy Bennett

Image: TVI

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