Karla Sofía Gascón Met Her Wife When She Was Only 19 — Inside Their Relationship

In May 2024, Vogue Italia did a profile on Spanish actor Karla Sofía Gascón around the time her movie, Emilia Pérez, made its world premiere at Cannes. She went on to take home the award for Best Female Actress as part of an ensemble cast that includes Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldana, and Selena Gómez. Karla was the first transgender actor to receive this award, having started her transition at the age of 46.

During her acceptance speech, Karla dedicated the award to "all trans people who suffer." She also thanked those involved with the movie as well as her fans. One person who didn't make the cut was Karla's wife, whom she's been married to since the mid-1990s. It was vaguely reminiscent of the time Hillary Swank forgot to thank her husband while accepting her first Oscar for Best Actress. It was probably nerves! Here's what we know about Karla Sofía Gascón's wife.

When asked about her wife, Marisa Gutierrez, Karla told The New Times, "We’ve obviously shared a big chunk of our lives together, but I’ve never deceived her about who I was." That big chunk began when Karla was 19 years old. She met Marisa at a nightclub. They were smitten almost immediately and were only apart for a brief time in 2009, when Karla moved to Mexico for work, per Vanitatis.

After gaining some success as an actor, Karla still hadn't started living openly as a woman. Making the decision to do so was risky because Karla knew it could ruin everything she had worked for. Privately, it could have also affected her family, including the daughter she shared with Marisa, who was born in 2011. "She doesn't have any kind of problem, or prejudice, or anything, because before she had one father and now she has two mothers," said Karla about her daughter.

Karla has stated that she and Marisa have raised their daughter "neither as a boy nor as a girl but as a person ... a human being that we were going to have to help so that she was self-sufficient in this world." This is in alignment with how Karla feels about her own identity, as she has frequently stated that she doesn't care for labels.

While guesting on El Hormiguero, host Pablo Motos asked the actor how she felt about being the first transgender person nominated for an Oscar. She replied that she didn't like adjectives but did concede she might be the tallest actor nominated for a Best Actress award.

After that interview, Karla took to Instagram to address some negative comments from trolls. She said she went on the show to have fun but if "someone wants tea, they always have two cups with me. If they choke from hunger it's not my problem."