Quantcast

Wife-For-Hire Blames Dead Twin For Multiple Marriages

11510bride.jpg
Sonia Estrada, and our pick to play her in the movie of her life, Julia Roberts
We want to pitch you on a new rom-com that's sure to make He's Just Not That Into You look like Audition: Julia Roberts plays a ditzy, 40-something career woman with no time for love. Through a series of unlikely but serendipitous misunderstandings, she stumbles into the cash-for-citizenship game, marrying wacky-but-nonthreatening immigrants so they can stay in the country. And then she falls in love with a man she's not married to...but how will she explain all her husbands to him? By telling him it's all her dead twin's fault! Hilarity and romance ensues this winter, in Serial Bride: Citizenship Wife.

It's not quite as cutesy in real life. Officials are accusing Sonia Estrada of such a scam, marrying at least four men in the last two decades. She was caught trying to marry a fifth recently: "She was a pay-for-play wife. Each guy paid her a few thousand bucks and got their papers. She had a real racket going," one city official told the News. She never divorced any of them either, and it seems that not all of them were in on the scam: "I didn't know she was married. If she did that, she's a liar. It's wrong," said Luis Montoya Rendon, a Colombian immigrant and one of her husbands.

She has at least four NY state marriage licenses, one from 1985, two in 1992, and one in 1994; she also has three children by a man who she is not married to. When she was summoned to an administrative tribunal to explain herself, she blamed the whole thing on her dead twin sister Gloria. The Judge was very skeptical in her decision: "It appeared all too convenient to accuse Gloria, since she was no longer around to dispute it." Just imagine: Runaway Bride meets Weekend at Bernie's, with a dash of The Informant! Somebody better get on the movie franchising rights immediately.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • BigUps

    Ain't she a peach.

  • schadenfreudian mensch

    Marry and marry often.

  • theevilone

    I vote for Rosie Perez.

  • Rocknrope

    Will Julia go Method and get a muffintop?

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@gothamist.com