Pablo Escobar’s long-term lover has lifted the lid on their relationship more than 30 years after his death.
Journalist turned actress Virginia Vallejo described the infamous drug lord as “short, chubby and unattractive” – but claims it was his “extreme confidence” that won her over.
Alongside his wife Victoria Eugenia Henao, Vallejo was the only publicly known romantic relationship enjoyed by Escobar, although there were rumours that he was philandering with multiple different women.
She later chronicled her experiences with Escobar in her book “Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar,” which inspired director Fernando León de Aranoa’s film “Loving Pablo,” starring Penélope Cruz as Vallejo.
Vallejo gave a rare interview to TV show ‘La Noche de Adolfo Arjona’ about her relationship with Escobar, who was killed in December 1993, which she described as a “wild situation”.
Pablo Escobar’s long-term lover has lifted the lid on their relationship more than 30 years after his death.
She said: “I fell in love with him because he fell in love with me first. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had a relationship with a lower-class man.
“He was short, chubby, and unattractive, but his extreme confidence won me over. Besides, I realised he was a criminal.”
Vallejo claims that her relationship with the cartel kingpin was so close that she knew his secrets before anyone else did. She was a television actress when the pair met and went on to have a five-year long affair with America’s public enemy number one.
Vallejo revealed what Escobar’s motivations were: “Pablo wanted to be the richest man in Colombia. If he didn’t have one million dollars by the time he was 30, he said he would kill himself with a shot to the head.
Escobar’s mistress claims she tried to redirect his life and “control the wild stallion” that he was.
Vallejo’s love for Escobar apparently reached a point where they considered going into hiding together. She said: “We were in a small house hidden in the countryside, and we both thought that if we were surrounded by the army or the secret police, we would kill ourselves so we wouldn’t suffer torture after being captured.”
Today though she claims she remembers him as a murderer, saying that she left the drug lord after he orchestrated the death of Colombia’s Minister of Justice.
Vallejo says she dumped him after Escobar asked someone to teach him how to make bombs.
The world’s most infamous drug lord was killed in Medellin by the Colombian National Police on December 2, 1993.
