- Home
- / International
- / OTT
El Chapo's 3 Marriages And 10+ Kids: Meet His Current Wife, Where's The Cartel Kingpin's Family Now?
Netflix's new thriller 'La captura' revisits the 2016 capture of Mexico's notorious Sinaloa Cartel kingpin, El Chapo. The kingpin was married at least thrice and had at least 12 to 15 children.
See more of our coverage in your search results.
Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleJoaquín Guzmán, a.k.a ‘El Chapo’, and his criminal empire made him one of the most notorious figures in modern organized crime. But beyond the cartel, his sprawling family has long fascinated true-crime enthusiasts.
With Netflix’s new thriller Facing El Chapo, also known as La captura, revisiting the dramatic 2016 arrest that ended Guzmán’s life on the run, attention is once again turning to the man behind the headlines, including his marriages, children, and the family he left behind. Netflix describes the 2026 movie as a crime drama based on true events, following two Mexican officers who encounter the cartel boss during the final hours of their shift.
Guzmán was ultimately extradited to the United States, convicted on federal charges, and sentenced to life in prison. He is currently incarcerated at ADX Florence in Colorado.
El Chapo was married at least 3 times and had at least 10 children
Reports about Guzmán's marriages vary, particularly because some accounts include relationships whose legal status is unclear. Several Mexican and international reports describe three wives and 10 children, while other biographical accounts list additional relationships or marriages, and at least 12 to 15 children. The three women most commonly associated with the children are Alejandrina María Salazar Hernández, Griselda López Pérez, and Emma Coronel Aispuro.
Guzmán married his first-known wife, Alejandrina María Salazar Hernández, in 1977. The couple had four children: César Guzmán Salazar, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, and Alejandrina Gisselle Guzmán Salazar. Two of their sons, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo, later became associated with the Sinaloa Cartel faction known as Los Chapitos. Much of Alejandrina’s life has remained away from the international spotlight compared with Emma Coronel, who became a highly recognizable public figure during Guzmán’s U.S. trial.
Guzmán was also married to Griselda López Pérez, who is described in Mexican media as the mother of four of his children: Édgar Guzmán López, Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López and Griselda Guadalupe Guzmán López. All four have attracted significant attention because several became prominent figures in the Sinaloa Cartel after their father's imprisonment.
Griselda’s eldest son, Édgar, was killed in 2008 in Culiacán. Ovidio was captured in Mexico in 2023 and later extradited to the United States, while Joaquín was arrested in the U.S. in 2024 alongside longtime cartel figure Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada.
Then came Emma Coronel Aispuro, the woman most closely associated with El Chapo in his later years. The couple reportedly married in 2007, when she was 18, and he was 50. They later welcomed twin daughters, Emali Guadalupe and María Joaquina, in 2011. Coronel became a familiar face during Guzmán's 2018-19 federal trial in Brooklyn, where she regularly appeared in court.
Credit: ABC7 Chicago
Her own legal troubles also made headlines later on. U.S. prosecutors said she had helped Guzmán and other members of the Sinaloa Cartel, including by assisting with preparations surrounding his 2015 prison escape. She pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to 36 months in prison.
Where is El Chapo's current wife now?
Guzmán remains behind bars, but Emma Coronel has been out of prison since 2023, having served most of her sentence. Ever since, her life has been very different from what it was during the years she spent at the center of Guzmán’s criminal case.
The actress has been stepping into the fashion and entertainment spotlight more and more, including a runway appearance at Milan Fashion Week in 2024. She has also continued to attract public attention because of her connection to one of the world's most infamous imprisoned criminals. Her twin daughters, meanwhile, have largely been kept away from the public eye.
The notorious kingpin's exact family tree can vary across sources because Guzmán was known to have multiple relationships outside these marriages, and accounts differ on which relationships were legally formalized. Some sources, therefore, describe him as having more than 10 children or more than 3 marriages.
On January 8, 2016, Mexican authorities intercepted El Chapo in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. He was extradited to the United States in January 2017 and convicted in Brooklyn in 2019. Thereupon, he received a life sentence and remains incarcerated at the federal supermax prison ADX Florence.
Now, nearly a decade after that final capture, Netflix is revisiting the moment in Facing El Chapo. The film focuses not on his family but on the two officers who encountered him during the 2016 operation, bringing a notorious chapter of Guzmán’s story back into the spotlight.
El Chapo's reign may have ended, but his family life remains as fascinating as it was a decade ago.
Image Courtesy: Netflix (cover), Reddit, ABC7 Chicago, Emma Coronel/Instagram
Read Next: 'Monster' True Story, Lizzie Borden Was Acquitted In The 1892 Murders, What Did The Evidence Show?
