Where Selena Quintanilla’s Husband Is 25 Years After Her Death

Spoilers ahead for Selena: The Series Part 1. Netflix’s new biographical drama Selena: The Series delves into the life and legacy of Selena Quintanilla, but it ends with a few stones unturned. At the end of the final episode, Selena’s dad, Abraham, kicks her guitarist Chris Pérez out of the band after discovering he and Selena have been secretly dating. This happened in real life, but it was actually even worse: in the show, Abraham pulls over at a gas station and gives Chris money to leave, but in actuality he left him on the side of a highway. According to Pérez, Abraham at one point even called him a “cancer” to their family.

Nonetheless, Selena and Pérez eloped in 1992. Abraham didn’t approve, but eventually allowed Pérez back into the band. Shortly afterward, the two experienced a rough patch in their marriage. “I think what it boiled down to is that we were young,” Pérez told CNN in 2012. “We were married and together 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We had to learn how to handle that.” They eventually did, and the couple considered starting a family. But before they could celebrate their third anniversary, Selena was shot and killed on March 31, 1995 by her fan-turned-business-partner Yolanda Saldívar.

After Selena’s death, Pérez retreated from the public eye to grieve. He later married Vanessa Villanueva and had two children before they divorced in 2008, per MEAWW. But he remained private about Selena’s death until publishing his 2012 memoir To Selena, With Love. “For years, Selena’s fans have been wondering if I was ever going to write about her,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. “Their voices had an impact on me but, more than anything else, I wanted to show a different side of her.”

Initially, Selena’s family approved of the book. “I didn’t say anything to anyone while writing it,” Pérez told THR. “When I was done and talked to Abraham about it, he said, ‘Son, if it’s something you feel you need to do, you have every right to do it.'” But that didn’t last long. In 2016, Abraham sued Pérez and his production company over their attempt to adapt To Selena, With Love into a TV series, alleging that he had rights to everything related to Selena’s brand.

Since then, Pérez has complained about being kept in the dark in regards to Selena: The Series. In April, he shared a picture of Jesse Posey, the actor who plays him in the show, writing, “Here is a pic I just saw of the actor playing me in the Netflix series. For the record, never met him, haven’t seen the script, and I have NO idea what is going on…..but, I’d love to find out.”

Perez still plays music today as part of the Chris Perez Band, and in 2019, he released his own hot sauce line, Perez Pepper Sauce. 25 years after Selena’s death, her loss still hurts, but he’s glad that her legacy lives on. “All this time has passed and she’s still growing,” he told Good Morning America in October. “The story keeps getting passed from generation to generation, which is amazing to me.”