Meet the Woman Who Brought Sean Penn and El Chapo Together

How did a glamorous telenovela star get caught up with the deadly drug lord?

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s coup de grâce is growing more bizarre by the second. Mexican authorities recently claimed a Rolling Stone interview with the drug lord by Hollywood actor Sean Penn alerted them to his whereabouts. Now, US media is debating why Penn was sent to the Mexican jungle to write such a glowing profile.

Mexican media, however, is exploding due to the involvement of one of their own—43-year-old actress Kate del Castillo.

Kate del Castillo is one of the most recognizable faces in Mexico, and a beautiful one at that. She’s a prolific actress who has starred in a number of lauded films and on one of the most popular telenovelas of all time, La Reina del Sur (The Queen of the South). The show dealt with the drug trade, with Castillo’s character emerging as one of its most powerful kingpins.

In a bizarre incident of life imitating art, her popularity took a hit in 2012 when she tweeted support for Mexico’s most infamous drug lord: “Today I believe more in ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán than in the Governments that hide painful truths: Those who hide the cure for AIDS and cancer for their own benefit and to become richer.”

The Daily Beast reports that after the letter made waves across Mexico, the actress somehow linked up with the man himself. The nature of her relationship with Guzmán is largely unknown, but she was reportedly trying to secure rights to make a film about his life. It has also been revealed that she served as the intermediary between Penn and El Chapo, bringing an end to one of the strangest crime sagas of recent history.

Familiarize yourself with this enigmatic queen of Mexican television. You’ll probably be seeing a lot of her on the news. 

h/t The Daily Beast