Mario Vargas Llosa leaves wife for Isabel Preysler

Peruvian author and columnist Mario Vargas Llosa has separated from his longtime wife Patricia Llosa.

Peru’s most celebrated novelist and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature told a Spanish television station that he was separated from his wife of 50 years. “I am separated and I have no more statements to make about my private life.”

Last week Spanish gossip tabloid Hola published photos of Vargas Llosa with Filipino socialite Isabel Preysler. Preysler is the ex-wife of Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and the mother of Enrique Iglesias. Preysler was also married to marquis of Griñon Carlos Falco and Spain’s former economic minister Miguel Boyer.

Mario Vargas Llosa’s first wife was his aunt and Bolivian writer Julia Urquidi, who inspired the main character for his novel, “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter.” Vargas Llosa left Urquidi in 1964 to marry his cousin Patricia Llosa. The couple had three children, including political commentator Alvaro Vargas Llosa.

A member of the Latin American Boom of 20th-century writers, Mario Vargas Llosa has published dozens of books including “The Time of the Hero,” “Conversation in the Cathedral” and “The Feast of the Goat.” He unsuccessfully ran for President of Peru in 1990, losing to Alberto Fujimori. His opinion column is published in Peruvian newspaper La Republica and Spanish daily La Nacion.

Sources

¡HOLA! adelanta su salida: Isabel Preysler y Mario Vargas Llosa, las imágenes que confirman su relación (Hola)

Isabel Preysler (Hola)

Mario Vargas Llosa: “Lo único que le confirmo es que estoy separado” (Salvame)

Mario Vargas Llosa: y quién se queda con los libros del escritor (Gestion)