Inside Selena's Relationship With Her Husband, Chris Perez
Chris Perez and Selena Quintanilla had been together for five years and married for three when she was murdered by an obsessive fan. Following Selena's death, Perez has remained vocal about his love for his former wife and shown support for her legacy. On what would have been their 25th wedding anniversary, he wrote in a Facebook post, "It's hard to believe that today marks 25 years since Selena and I decided that the only way to be together ... was to run away and get married (at 20 and 22 years old) in secret. What a rollercoaster ride THAT day was."
In 2012, Perez released a book titled "To Selena, With Love" that revealed a lot of previously unknown details about his relationship with Selena. Perez mentioned his surprise at the large reaction to the book, telling CNN, "When she (Selena) passed away, the outpouring of love and support that we got from the fans shocked us. ... So I thought I knew about it, but then when this book came out, the response that we've gotten from that, I'm actually shocked again. I didn't realize that I was putting something out there that all those fans had been waiting for."
Their relationship started out as a secret
According to Chris Perez's 2012 book "To Selena, with Love," he and Selena first met in 1990 when he was scouted by her older brother, A.B, to join his band. Perez had a girlfriend at the time, but his romance with Selena began to blossom in 1991 when he, Selena's family, and the rest of the band went to Mexico for a vacation. They kept the relationship undercover for a while, but when Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, found out, he fired Perez from the band (via Texas Monthly). Despite the backlash from Abraham, the pair eloped in 1992.
Once Selena and Perez were married, Abraham told Texas Monthly that he had no choice but to embrace Perez, stating, "After that, I accepted him as part of the family. What else could I do?" Perez also wrote in his book that Abraham apologized to him and Selena following the marriage, saying, "I'm sorry I pushed you kids into a corner." As a gesture of goodwill, Abraham gave the newlywed couple one of the three houses he owned — next door to him and his wife Marcella.
The young couple had ups and downs in their marriage
Selena and Chris Perez settled into married life. In "To Selena, With Love," he shared that they adopted a whole zoo of animals, including five dogs and a 4-foot python named Bugsy. Selena's career was on the rise — in 1994, she won a Grammy Award for best Mexican-American album — and Abraham had accepted their relationship, or at least openly tolerated it. On the surface, things appeared to be going extremely well.
Nevertheless, the love story of Selena and Perez wasn't always rosy. Speaking to CNN about a "rough patch" in his and Selena's marriage, Perez stated, "We were married and together 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We had to learn how to handle that and that was both of us. ... We ended up patching things up and making a promise that we would never let that happen again. We started talking about a family." Tragically, this happened due to Selena's untimely death in 1995, just 16 days before her 24th birthday.