The past few weeks have been a real ordeal for actress Sonia Monroy. No sooner had she returned to Spain after participating in the popular reality show ‘Supervivientes All Stars’ than she was struck by a personal tragedy—the death of her sister, Marianjeles Monroig, who had been battling a terminal form of cancer. This loss once again turned the spotlight on the actress’s family, who, despite her twenty-five years in the public eye, have always chosen to stay out of the limelight.
Though Sonia Monroy has long been accustomed to fame and her professional achievements and personal life have often been discussed in the media, her relatives—the Monroig Casals clan—have always led very private lives. Only occasionally would one of them appear on television, but for the most part, the family maintained their privacy.
Sonia’s parents, Perfecto Monroig Navarro and Virtudes Casals Barbera, were both artists. Born in the 1930s, they have both passed away. Her father was a tenor at the renowned Liceu Theatre in Barcelona. He died of cancer in 2009, and that loss inspired Sonia to fulfill the promise she had made to him—to conquer Hollywood. Her mother, Virtudes, was once an actress but left the stage for her family and always remained her daughter’s main support in her career. In her final years, she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and passed away in 2022.
The family in which the former Sex Bomb member grew up was large. Her parents had seven children, including Sonia. However, fate intervened, and today only half of them are still alive. In recent years, the actress has lost three siblings. The first tragedy was the death of her brother Peter, a DJ and music producer, in 1993. He was just twenty-seven years old and died in a car accident. In 2018, another brother, Frank, died in a car crash, leaving his son orphaned. The recent passing of Marianheles, who was eight years older than Sonia, was the latest blow. The sisters were very close. Marianheles married young and dedicated herself to her family, although after her divorce in 2018, she appeared on the TV show ‘Cámbiame.’ There is also known to be a sister named Olga and a brother named Sergio.
The large Monroig clan also includes the artist’s nephews and nieces, whose photos she sometimes shares on social media. Among them are Peter, the son of her late brother Frank, and Marianheles’s three daughters. One of them, Alba Morales, has become the most well-known of Sonia’s nieces. She works as a real estate consultant and recently confirmed in an interview that her mother and aunt shared a wonderful sisterly bond. Sonia is also very close to her cousin Lidia, whom she has repeatedly called her ‘confidant’ and ‘soulmate.’
Sonia’s personal life was also full of challenges. In the 1990s, she was married to Colombian actor and football player Juan Diego Lopez. She also had a relationship with the famous Brazilian footballer Romário. That relationship led to a pregnancy, but she lost her daughter in the fifth month. Recently, while mourning her sister’s death, Monroy reflected on that irreparable loss, admitting she never thought she would witness her daughter ‘fly away.’
