El Chapo may be the world's most notorious and slippery drug lord to us, but to his former beauty queen wife he's just her lobster. Her 32-years her senior lobster she married on her 18th birthday.
In an exclusive interview with the LA Times, Emma Coronel Aispuro talks about her eight year marriage to the leader of the Sinaloa cartel for the first time. This is what we learned, other than he's a lovely, family guy she's never seen take drugs but has been on the run for the entirety of their relationship. And that she fears for his life in prison.
It's basically your classic: girl-meets-international-drug-lord love story
He's been involved in drugs since he was 15
In his infamous interview with Sean Penn, El Chapo revealed on camera that he has worked in the drug trade since he was 15 — drawn to it because of the poverty in the rural mountains. The release of the video was a 'betrayal', as the kingpin believed that the footage would be used only as background information for a text article.
He's as cool as a cucumber
According to his wife, “he doesn’t show at any moment he is worried about something" and is “very intelligent,” though he lacks formal education. Even when men with guns stormed into his bedroom demanding he show himself, El Chapo's choice words were “calm down, I’m here,” as he emerged from the bathroom.
He doesn't think he is rich
No, we're not kidding. Emma told the LA Times that despite Forbes magazine naming him as one of the world’s richest men, her husband said to her: “One has to ask the magazine: Where is all this money? Do they know? Because I don’t know where it is.”
He worries about his status
His wife said what really worried him was his growing status as a narco-legend and his inability to control his own story.
He had long wanted to collaborate on a film about his life, in part to counter what he viewed as untruths and sensationalism. “To put exactly how things are and everything that has happened until now, told by him,” she explains. This was what led to that Sean Penn interview.
He likes to dance
He met his wife at a dance in La Angostura, showing off some smooth moves.
“He was dancing with another girl. I was dancing with my boyfriend — at that time I had a boyfriend — and we crossed paths right in the center of the dance floor. He flirtatiously smiled at me. After a while a person told me, ‘The man asks if you want to dance with him.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ Because in the ranchos, even though you have a boyfriend, you can dance with every person who asks you to dance. So I said, ‘Of course!’”
He's just like you and me
“He is like any other man — of course he is not violent, not rude,” says Coronel, who insists she has never seen her husband act violently or take drugs.
“I have never heard him say a bad word. I have never seen him get excited or be upset at anyone.”
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