Who is Kate del Castillo, the Mexican actress who brokered Sean Penn’s interview with El Chapo?
And how did a telenovela queen become so chummy with the world’s most notorious drug kingpin, anyway?
Sean Penn’s secret interview with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for Rolling Stone — conducted last year while the world’s most notorious drug kingpin was on the run from Mexican authorities — was brokered by Kate del Castillo, a popular Mexican actress who had been in contact with El Chapo before and after his escape from a maximum security prison.
So who is del Castillo? And how did she become so chummy with El Chapo, anyway?
The 43-year-old actress, who once played a drug kingpin in the Telemundo soap opera “La Reina del Sur,” made headlines in 2012 when she declared on social media that she had more faith in Guzmán than the Mexican government and called on him to use his global drug-trafficking network to do good.
“Mr. Chapo, wouldn’t it be cool that you started trafficking with love? With cures for diseases, with food for the homeless children, with alcohol for the retirement homes that don’t let the elderly spend the rest of the days doing whatever the f*** they want, trafficking with corrupt politicians and not with women and children who wind up as slaves?” she wrote. “Come on, Don! You would become a hero of heroes. Let’s traffic in love, you know how.”
According to Penn, El Chapo’s lawyers then contacted del Castillo, who now lives in Los Angeles, saying El Chapo wanted to send her flowers.
After his 2014 capture, El Chapo’s lawyers contacted her again — this time about helming a biopic on the drug lord. The actress and Guzmán purportedly developed a friendship, with the kingpin “intermittently” sending messages to her from prison — and even after his July escape. Penn was introduced to del Castillo by a mutual friend last fall, putting the wheels in motion for their October meeting.
Born in 1972 in Mexico City, del Castillo began her acting career as a child. Her breakout came in 1991 in the telenovela “Muchachitas,” which led to a series of hits and cemented her as one of Latin America’s biggest stars.
The daughter of well-known Mexican actor Eric del Castillo, she was married to soccer star Luis García from 2001 to 2004 and to fellow actor Aarón Díaz from 2009 to 2011. In between, del Castillo was named one of People en Español’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2007.
The same year, she finally broke through in America in her award-winning performance in “Under the Same Moon,” which according to IMDb is the highest-grossing Spanish-language theatrical release in U.S. history.
Later, del Castillo appeared as a recurring guest star on the fifth season of Showtime’s “Weeds.” Her character? A powerful Mexican crime boss.
The actress is known for her activism, serving as ambassador for the Mexican Commission on Human Rights to combat human trafficking or in advertisements for PETA and the Humane Society.
She’s also the brand ambassador for Honor tequila, which earned a nice little plug in Penn’s piece:
And she has a massive social following, with more than 2.5 million followers on Twitter and 1.6 million on Instagram, where she posted this photo with Penn on Oct. 3 — the day after they met secretly with El Chapo at an undisclosed location in the Mexican jungle.
