Since news of the death of Regina Santos-Aviles came to light there have been persistent rumors that she was having an affair with U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-23). We previously published a factcheck regarding the rumors about her death. We found the rumors of her death being related to hate crime or drug violence as False.
Rumors of an affair have remained although investigators have not reported any findings of an affair. However, although there is no official finding of suicide, the circumstances surrounding her death suggest that a suicide occurred.
Until this morning, rumors of an affair had mainly circulated among people. This morning news began to make rounds on social media and online that the UK-based Daily Mail publication had reported that Gonzalez was “allegedly had an affair” with Regina-Santos. Several online sources have all cited the Daily Mail article in their affair allegations. The Daily Mail’s story cited “multiple unnamed sources” in their story. No other news media has independently confirmed the Daily Mail’s reporting.
Our Verdict
We rate this claim to be: Misleading.
Based on the available evidence, we rate the Daily Mail’s reporting as misleading at best and factually incorrect at worst.
The Daily Mail used unnamed sources in their reporting. There has been no credible evidence suggesting that there was an affair, other rumormongering.
Except for the UK-based Daily Mail, no other news media has reported the affair. In 2017 Wikipedia banned the Daily Mail as unreliable source, citing the publication for poor fact checking and sensationalism.”
For this reason, at this time we find that there is no credible evidence to suggest that Tony Gonzalez was having an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles.
Last updated: October 21, 2025
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The El Paso Herald Post Fact Check column fact-checks social media and other online claims to ensure that the facts are known.
Our editorial team selects online content that is about current events and of public interest and investigates them to see if they are fact-based or disinformation. After selecting the content we will profile, we attempt to find the origin of the claim and look for evidence that the claim is true.
After concluding our investigation of the content, we publish our findings with one of five identifiers:
True: We are the content as true when our investigation reveals the statement(s) is accurate.
False: We rate the content as false when our investigation finds that there are no credible sources proving the claim or that it has been independently disproved.
Misleading: When we find that the content includes misleading inaccuracies or includes factually incorrect information with the intent to deceive, we mark it as misleading.
Missing Context: Content that is generally correct but includes statements that tend to mislead is labeled as misleading.
AI-Generated: Content that is artificially generated, created, or altered, or deepfakes are labeled AI-Generated.
Along with our conclusion, we publish the sources we used to make our determination.
Corrections
When new information surfaces after we’ve published a determination to change our fining, we will clearly mark the change and the reason for the change in our original finding. Readers can compare the date of publication with the last update date in our verdict to see if any changes have been made and why the change was made.
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