Who is Rio Díaz-Cojuangco? Charlie Cojuangco ex wife is dead? - whats happened

Rio Díaz-Cojuangco (born Rosario Aspilera Díaz; August 14, 1959 – October 4, 2004) was a Philippine beauty queen, television presenter, actor, and politician. Former Miss Universe 1969 sister Gloria Diaz was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer and died in the US in 2004. She is Georgina Wilson’s aunt, through another sister, Aurora, who is Wilson’s mother.+

Díaz was born in Manila, the youngest of twelve children born to Jaime Díaz and Teresa Aspilera. As a ramp and advertising model, she was crowned Mutya ng Pilipinas in 1977 and came fourth in the Miss Asia pageant that same year.

Díaz began a relationship with musician Hajji Alejandro, and together they immigrated to Los Angeles, California, where they ran a small restaurant on Melrose Avenue. They have a son. Ali Alejandro

After breaking up with Alejandro, Diaz returned to the Philippines to restart her entertainment career. She co-hosted Eat Bulaga in 1991 and stayed for a few years before going on a blind date with Charlie Cojuangco in 1993, marrying him the following year. For much of the 1990s, Diaz worked in television and starred in several films. They have 2 children, Jaime Diaz Cojuangco and Claudia Diaz Cojuangco.

Diaz, like her first husband Haji Alejandro, was a supporter of former president Ferdinand Marcos even after he was ousted in the People’s Power Revolution.

She was elected Vice Mayor of Pontevedra, Negros Occidental in the 1998 election while her husband won a seat in Congress. Diaz later became president of the Union of Deputy Mayors of Negros Occidental.

During a routine check-up in December 1998, her American doctor told her that she had a small growth on her left abdomen. After a six-hour operation, they found a stage IV malignancy that gave Diaz only three months to live. She had another surgery and received three months of chemotherapy.

In 1999, Stanford oncologist Dr. George Fisher, she had recovered. When the cancer cells returned in May 2000, Rio returned to Stanford for an eight-hour surgery and another round of chemotherapy. Diaz withdrew from treatment in 2002, citing her body’s inability to cope, but later that year her doctors said she had no choice but to continue treatment.

Diaz died on October 4, 2004, at Seton Medical Center in Daly, California, at the age of 45, six years after his original diagnosis.