Emma Coronel Aispuro recently offered an unprecedented look into her life, breaking years of silence in the Oxygen documentary “Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks.” The special, which premiered on November 29, provided a raw and unfiltered account of her experiences alongside Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the notorious 68-year-old drug lord currently serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado. Coronel revisited the darkest, most controversial, and painful chapters of her life, from her teenage years to Guzmán’s high-profile arrests and trial in Brooklyn.
Coronel paints a picture of a childhood spent “on a small ranch, without television, without a phone.” She recounted meeting Guzmán Loera at just 17 years old, remembering his surprising, almost prophetic question: “Do you know who I am?” She had no way of knowing at the time, she replied, because she didn’t even own a television. From that moment, a relationship began, defined by a stark power imbalance and what she describes as her youthful innocence. “I was a child,” she reiterated.
Their courtship was clandestine and meticulously controlled. Emma detailed how Guzmán never visited her home; instead, their encounters always took place in secluded locations, far from public view. She and her companions would travel to meet him in remote communities, often involving secret routes, discarded phones, and swapped vehicles. Sometimes, she explained, they were flown on small planes to makeshift airstrips on isolated ranches, accessible only through carefully orchestrated operations designed to prevent any tracking of their movements. Throughout this time, she referred to him simply as “my love,” never using the infamous moniker “El Chapo” that made him a global media figure. To her, he was attentive, protective, and charismatic, though this image would inevitably fracture over time.
The complexities of her life dramatically escalated when her name surfaced during Guzmán’s trial in New York. Specifically, declarations from Dámaso López, known as “El Licenciado,” claimed Emma was aware of plans for Guzmán’s escape from the Altiplano maximum-security prison. Hearing her name in court solidified a chilling realization: “When I heard my name, I knew very big problems were coming.” Despite this, she continued to attend the trial daily, viewing it as her way of declaring, “I’m not going to flee.”
The documentary also captures a moment of visible discomfort for Coronel when the interviewer posed two direct questions: “Did you know he was going to escape?” and “How did you first find out he had escaped?” In response, Coronel abruptly disconnected her microphone and inquired if filming was still underway. An expert’s voice-over explained that Coronel, still under probation, feared making any statement that could harm her legal standing.
During the trial, an agonizing truth emerged concerning Guzmán’s infidelities. While rumors of other women had circulated for years, Emma had tried to believe Guzmán’s denials. However, the trial brought undeniable evidence of his relationship with Lucero Sánchez, dubbed “La Chapodiputada.” Witness testimonies and communications between Guzmán and Sánchez confirmed the extramarital affair to the court. Emma admitted the revelation was devastating. “It hurts to know I wasn’t the only one. That before, after, and during… there were other women.” She confessed that publicly witnessing Sánchez in court, with the world scrutinizing her every expression, was emotionally draining. “I seemed cold, but no one knew if I was breaking inside,” she revealed.
Coronel recounted the moment of her unexpected arrest with vivid detail. She had been traveling frequently between Mexico and the United States. Upon landing in Washington, D.C., on a commercial flight, she observed black vans approaching the aircraft. “They came directly for me,” she stated.
During her detention, the conditions were harsh. While on her period, she was provided only two sanitary pads for four days. The arrest occurred in February, and she suffered from extreme cold. Her lawyer had to teach her basic English words like “shower” and “blanket.” Overwhelmed by depression due to her daughters’ absence, Coronel made a strategic decision to plead guilty, aiming to expedite her release and reunite with them.
In one of the documentary’s most poignant moments, Emma reflected on the conflicting emotions she still carries. She acknowledged that without her relationship with El Chapo, she would not have her two daughters, who she says changed her life and for whom she is now striving to rebuild. Yet, she also expressed profound regret: her father and brother were imprisoned due to their association with the drug lord. “If I hadn’t been with him, they wouldn’t have been in jail,” she stated, highlighting the painful duality of her love for her children and the guilt over the collateral damage.
Now 36, Emma lives under constant supervision as part of her probation, with authorities monitoring her every move—a fact she noted even as she recorded the interview. She is determined to maintain stability for her daughters, aiming “not to fail them again.” Looking ahead, Coronel expressed a strong desire to “build her own name,” separate from Guzmán’s legacy. She aspires to work in fashion, recalling her past experience opening and closing a runway show in Milan and appearing in a music video.
The documentary concludes with Coronel making a final, direct address to the camera. “I empathize with all the people who have lost a loved one. If I could do something to change it, I would with all my heart,” she declared, reiterating her hope that her experience might serve as a cautionary tale. “I was almost a child,” she added, reflecting on her past.
The documentary “Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks” has been available on the Oxygen network since November 28.