'I had five-year affair with Pablo Escobar – there's only one thing I regret'
Virginia Vallejo revealed she had never regretted loving a man, even 'monster' Escobar, but there was one offer made by the kingpin she wishes she had taken
A woman who had a five-year affair with notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar has revealed she has just one regret from their relationship.
Virginia Vallejo said she was swooned into starting an extramarital affair by the Colombian cocaine trafficker's "sweet and cheesy" words before he was shot dead by the police in 1993, aged 44. The former model and TV presenter, 76, gushed about "monster" Escobar and their relationship, revealing she has never regretted "having loved man, never". But, while she didn't regret their affair, she said she regretted not having taken advantage of a potentially life-changing offer the kingpin once made.
In an interview ahead of a new tell-all book, she revealed she never regretted relationships with any of her "horrible" former husbands, "or Pablo, who became a monster". She first wrote about the drug lord in the book ‘Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar’ in 2007, but has now revealed even more secrets about their five-year fling.
Talking from her apartment in Miami, where she lives in exile after testifying against several of Escobar’s associates, she said she regrets not taking advantage of his fortune.
She said: “He told me, ‘Ask for whatever you want,’ and I said, ‘I don’t want anything, Pablo,' like an idiot. That’s one of my regrets in life, I should have asked him for everything!”
Ms Vallejo first met Escobar in 1982 at his Hacienda Nápoles estate in Medellín, Colombia's largest city in the Antioquia province. She was in another high-profile relationship with Aníbal Turbay, nephew of then-President Julio César Turbay, when she was saved by Escobar after a whirlwind swept her away.
They were in a relationship six months later after Ms Vallejo said she was won over by his “sweet and cheesy words”. She said: “I didn't conquer Pablo; Pablo conquered me. I knew he was married, and we agreed that our relationship would be completely secret.
“We always met alone, usually at the Hacienda, in his apartment, a penthouse.” She said she didn’t care that he was a “cocaine kingpin” or “what he did with his money” because “he planned to supposedly lift Medellín out of poverty”. Ms Vallejo said Escobar was also key to her getting a divorce from her second husband, Argentine producer David Stevel, after threatening him.
He then sent her a thousand orchids and paid off all her debts. She said: "Does everything I'm telling you about Pablo seem like a load of rubbish?
"He saved my life, cancelled my debts, sent me a thousand orchids, and divorced me from a b*stard.” She added: “I was never Pablo Escobar's lover; I was one of his lovers, and he was one of my lovers. We had a relationship on equal terms.” She said he would call her his “little panther” and then, towards the end of their relationship, his “clean soul”.