Thafne Toledo sues TV Globo over 2008 Soletrando results

Thafne Toledo, a former participant of the 2008 spelling competition ‘Soletrando’, has resurfaced in public discussion following a legal dispute against TV Globo. During the live final, then 13-year-old Toledo challenged host Luciano Huck regarding his pronunciation of the word ‘infra-hepático’, requiring an intervention from a Portuguese professor to proceed.

While the pronunciation dispute did not cause her elimination, Toledo finished in second place after misspelling ‘hagiológio’. The winner, Eder Carlos Coimbra, received a R$ 100,000 prize for educational investments.

Years later, Toledo and her family filed a lawsuit in the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice against TV Globo, seeking moral and material damages. The legal action was based on the allegation that the winner, Coimbra, committed an unpunished error by incorrectly pronouncing the word ‘homogeneidade’ as ‘homogeneitate’ during the competition, which Toledo claimed unfairly impacted her chances of winning.