26 Facts About Virginia Vallejo

Virginia Vallejo Garcia was born on 26 August 1949 and is a Colombian author, journalist, television and radio director, anchorwoman, model, columnist, socialite, and political asylee in the United States of America.

Virginia Vallejo is one of the most relevant media personalities of her native country, known for her interviews of presidents, politicians, international celebrities, musicians, authors and scientists.

Virginia Vallejo has been international editor of television newscasts and anchorwoman, when she won twice the prize as the best anchorperson of Colombia.

Virginia Vallejo was image and model of Di Lido pantyhose, with commercials made in Venice, Rio de Janeiro, San Juan, Bogota and Cartagena de Indias.

Virginia Vallejo has been invited by foreign governments, like Israel and Taiwan, to cover historical events.

Virginia Vallejo made other many type of television programs, like musical shows with the most famous singers and orchestras of her time.

Virginia Vallejo is a bestseller author, translated to many languages.

Virginia Vallejo was born on 26 August 1949 in Cartago, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, near her family's ranch.

Virginia Vallejo's parents were Juan Vallejo Jaramillo, an entrepreneur, and Mary Garcia Rivera.

Virginia Vallejo's paternal grandmother, Sofia Jaramillo Arango, was a descendant of Alonso Jaramillo de Andrade Cespedes y Guzman, a nobleman from Extremadura, Spain.

Virginia Vallejo studied first in the kindergarten of Elvira Lleras Restrepo, sister of President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, a friend of her family.

Virginia Vallejo was the only journalist sent by a Colombian media outlet to London to cover the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer on 29 July 1981.

Virginia Vallejo covered the Miss Colombia pageant for the same station until 1985.

In 2019, Virginia Vallejo returned to her work as a television journalist for the international channel RT en Espanol or Actualidad RT.

In early July 2006, Virginia Vallejo offered her testimony in the case against Alberto Santofimio, a former Justice Minister and associate of Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellin cartel and her lover from 1983 to 1987.

All of Escobar's hitmen in the crime and several key witnesses against Santofimio had been killed, so Virginia Vallejo contacted the American Embassy in Bogota and asked the US Government to help save her life in exchange for information on the associates of Pablo Escobar and brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela of the Cali cartel, Pablo Escobar's nemesis.

Virginia Vallejo's flight made news worldwide, and a home video that Virginia Vallejo had taped before her departure to protect her life was aired by Canal RCN of Colombia; according to the channel, it was watched by 14 million people, with higher rates of audience than the Football World Cup final of 2006 on 9 July.

Virginia Vallejo's memoir became the number one bestselling Spanish-language book in both Colombia and the United States.

Virginia Vallejo knew that if returned to Colombia, she would be killed, like several witnesses in the cases vs Alberto Santofimio and the bosses of the Cali cartel.

In July 2008, the Colombian Government ordered Virginia Vallejo to testify in the reopened case of the Palace of Justice siege, a massacre that cost the lives of more than 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court Justices, rebels of the M-19, government agents, and dozens of unarmed civilians.

In July 2009, Virginia Vallejo testified in the reopened case of the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan which occurred on 18 August 1989, and signaled Alberto Santofimio as the main instigator of the candidate's assassination.

Virginia Vallejo has been married twice to prominent and older men, the architect Fernando Borrero, a widower, and David Stivel, head of the Clan Stivel that grouped the leading Argentinean actors of his time.

Virginia Vallejo has often said that she would never have children.

Six months later, Virginia Vallejo ended her relationship with Anibal and began a romance with the head of the Medellin Cartel.

Virginia Vallejo spent most of year 1986 in Cartagena with Rafael Vieira, director of the Oceanarium of the Rosario Islands.

Since mid 1984, Virginia Vallejo has had an affair of many years with a British aristocrat, the Hon.