Joran van der Sloot Wife: Leidy Figueroa, Their Prison Wedding, Daughter and Separation

Joran van der Sloot’s marriage returned to public attention after Netflix released Taken: Natalee Holloway on November 4, 2026. The documentary revisits Holloway’s disappearance and the confession he gave in 2023. Alongside those events, viewers have questions about Leidy Figueroa, the Peruvian woman he married while serving a prison sentence.

Leidy Figueroa is widely identified in current coverage as van der Sloot’s former wife. They married in July 2014 and had a daughter later that year. His lawyer publicly discussed divorce proceedings in 2023, although a final divorce judgment is not available in the reporting reviewed for this article.

That distinction is important because older profiles still call Figueroa his wife without mentioning the later separation. Recent accounts describe her as his ex-wife, while the documented public timeline establishes the marriage and the subsequent announcement of divorce plans.

Figueroa has largely stayed out of public view. Her connection to the case comes through the relationship, not through responsibility for van der Sloot’s crimes.

Who is Leidy Figueroa and how did they meet?

Figueroa is from Peru and was already a mother when she met van der Sloot. Contemporary accounts described her as studying or working in accounting, although her subsequent professional life is not reliably documented.

The relationship developed through visits to the Peruvian prison where he was held. Accounts differ over the precise circumstances of their first introduction, including whether she was visiting another prisoner or selling goods inside the facility.

Those variations should not be combined into a single confident story. What the reports consistently establish is that the relationship began while van der Sloot was incarcerated in Peru and continued through permitted visits.

Their wedding took place at Piedras Gordas prison in July 2014. His attorney confirmed the marriage to reporters at the time, when Figueroa was pregnant with their child.

The ceremony attracted international coverage because van der Sloot was already serving a sentence for murdering Stephany Flores Ramírez. A prison wedding did not change that conviction or provide evidence that the underlying criminal case had been overturned.

His lawyer denied suggestions of a hidden legal motive for the marriage. That was the lawyer’s explanation, rather than an independently established account of the couple’s private thinking.

Did Joran van der Sloot and Leidy Figueroa have children?

The couple had a daughter in 2014, a few months after their wedding. Her name has appeared in public reporting with variations in spelling. She remains a minor, and detailed information about her present life is limited.

Figueroa also had a son from a previous relationship when she met van der Sloot. That child should not be presented as van der Sloot’s biological son merely because he later married the boy’s mother.

There is no reliable basis in the sources reviewed to describe the daughter’s current school, home or relationship with her father. The fact that visits were possible under prison rules does not establish that particular visits occurred.

The family story sometimes becomes sensationalized because of van der Sloot’s notoriety. A careful account separates the adult relationship from the children, who did not choose the circumstances that brought them public attention.

Current coverage has not established another confirmed child from a later relationship. Reports about girlfriends or permitted prison visitors should not be treated as evidence of additional children.

What is known about their separation and his situation now?

In 2023, van der Sloot’s lawyer said he was seeking a divorce from Figueroa. Reporting also linked him with Eva Pacohuanaco, but a later relationship does not by itself establish the legal date on which an earlier marriage ended.

Figueroa has not maintained a prominent public profile explaining the separation. Assertions about a new partner, a new marriage or her current finances would go beyond what the available reliable reporting establishes.

Van der Sloot was temporarily transferred to the United States in 2023 to face federal extortion and wire fraud charges connected with money sought from Natalee Holloway’s mother, Beth. He pleaded guilty and received a 20-year sentence.

As part of the proceedings, he admitted killing Natalee in Aruba in 2005. The federal convictions concerned extortion and fraud; they were not a United States murder conviction for her death.

He subsequently returned to Peru, where he was already imprisoned for killing Flores. The American sentence was ordered to run concurrently with his Peruvian imprisonment, subject to the terms of the transfer arrangement.

The new documentary explains why these older events are being discussed again. It does not turn the 2014 wedding into a recent marriage announcement. For the relationship keyword, the central facts remain Leidy Figueroa’s marriage to van der Sloot, their daughter and the separation publicly reported years later.