Emma Coronel Aispuro, the former beauty queen and ex-wife of notorious drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, stunned her social media followers on September 5, 2025, by sharing a never-before-seen photograph of her twin daughters. The image, posted on her verified Instagram account @emma.coronel.official, showed the girls dressed in bright yellow outfits and matching hats, captured during what appeared to be a professional photo shoot from their early childhood. The caption read, "If you wanted to meet my little ones," with heart emojis, an unusually candid gesture from a woman known for fiercely guarding her family's privacy.
The twins, Emaly Guadalupe and María Joaquina, were born on August 15, 2011, in Lancaster, California, at a time when Guzmán was still a fugitive from justice. According to El Imparcial and Infobae, the girls—now 14 years old—live with Coronel in the United States and hold American citizenship. Their birth and early years were shrouded in secrecy, a deliberate choice by Coronel to shield them from the intense media scrutiny and stigma attached to their father's infamy. As she told Elle magazine, the twins were not initially registered with their father's surname, a decision aimed at protecting their future and enabling them to grow up away from the shadow of Guzmán's criminal legacy.
Coronel's recent post quickly sparked a wave of reactions, garnering over 17,000 likes within just two hours. Many followers commented on the girls' resemblance to their parents—one noting, "The one with the apple looks just like her dad, the other like her mom." Others expressed surprise at Coronel's willingness to share a glimpse of her family life after so many years of discretion. "Fourteen years later, you finally dared," one user remarked, highlighting the rarity of such openness from Coronel.
Despite this unprecedented reveal, Coronel remains committed to maintaining her daughters' privacy. In her social media activity, she consistently uses emojis to cover their faces or selects images where the twins are photographed from behind. This approach isn't just about controlling her public narrative; it's a protective measure. As Infobae reported, Coronel has repeatedly emphasized—both in interviews and online—that she wants to safeguard her daughters' well-being and personal development. In a recent Q&A session with followers, Coronel explained her stance: "When they have the appropriate maturity, they can decide if they want to be exposed on social media." This philosophy, she said, is about letting her daughters choose their own path when they're ready, rather than thrusting them into the public eye prematurely.
The twins' lives, while largely private, have occasionally intersected with the public sphere. According to Infobae, they once attended a hearing during their father's high-profile trial in New York—a proceeding dubbed "the trial of the century." But such appearances have been rare, and Coronel has generally kept details about their upbringing and daily routines closely guarded. Even when she revealed that the family had recently traveled to Japan, she offered no further information, maintaining the line between public curiosity and personal boundaries.
Coronel's own life has undergone a dramatic transformation since her release from a U.S. prison, where she served a sentence related to narcotics offenses. Emerging from incarceration, she has worked to reinvent her public persona. As both El Imparcial and Infobae note, Coronel has taken on new roles as an influencer, model, and budding entrepreneur, using platforms like Instagram and TikTok to share glimpses of her professional projects and day-to-day experiences. Her efforts to rebuild her image have not gone unnoticed, with many observers noting the contrast between her glamorous online presence and the gravity of her family's history.
Yet, even as she cultivates a new identity, Coronel's past remains inextricably linked to one of the most infamous figures in modern criminal history. Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, better known as "El Chapo," was born on April 4, 1957, in La Tuna, Sinaloa, Mexico. He rose to infamy as the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, orchestrating a vast network that trafficked drugs across continents. His criminal exploits included multiple daring escapes from maximum-security prisons in Mexico, feats that only deepened his legend and notoriety worldwide.
After being recaptured in 2016 and extradited to the United States in 2017, Guzmán faced a landmark trial in New York. In 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 30 years, a judgment that brought a dramatic end to his reign. Today, he is held under strict isolation at the ADX Florence supermax facility in Colorado, a prison known for its extreme security measures and the psychological toll it takes on inmates. According to Infobae, Guzmán's attorney, Mariel Colón, recently raised concerns about his mental health, citing the harsh conditions of his confinement.
Coronel, for her part, has not been able to visit Guzmán in prison, and her daughters' visits have become increasingly rare. The separation underscores the profound impact of Guzmán's incarceration on his family—a reality that Coronel appears determined to navigate on her own terms, balancing the demands of public life with the need to protect her children's innocence.
The public's fascination with Coronel and her family is fueled by the extraordinary circumstances of their lives. Some social media users have referred to the twins with nicknames like "the princesses of the boss and the queen of 701" or "the daughters of the most powerful man in the world, and it's not Elon Musk." Others have praised Coronel for her discretion and urged her to continue shielding her daughters from the dangers of unwanted attention. The consensus among many followers seems to be one of respect for her efforts to provide a semblance of normalcy amid a backdrop of notoriety and risk.
As Coronel continues to chart a new course—embracing entrepreneurship, modeling, and influencing—she remains an enigmatic figure. Her willingness to share a rare family photo suggests a tentative openness, but her overriding priority is clear: the safety and autonomy of her daughters. Whether Emaly Guadalupe and María Joaquina will eventually choose to step into the spotlight themselves remains to be seen. For now, their mother is content to let them decide, in their own time, how much of their story the world will know.
In the end, the lives of Emma Coronel and her daughters remain a study in contrasts—public intrigue and private resolve, notoriety and normalcy, past shadows and future possibilities. Coronel's latest post may have offered a fleeting glimpse into her family's world, but the full story, it seems, is still very much her own to tell.
