Texas congressman Tony Gonzalez (R) has been accused of having an affair with a woman on his staff who died after setting herself on fire.
35-year-old Regina Aviles perished in the blaze at her Uvalde home in September. While Gonzalez has publicly mourned Aviles as a "kind soul," anonymous sources told the Daily Mail that their relationship ran deeper than he let on.
A Gonzalez spokesman "refused to deny the affair when repeatedly offered the opportunity by the Daily Mail," the outlet noted.
The timeline of the relationship was not made clear, but one source told the Daily Mail that it lasted "for some time" and that Aviles' husband, Adrian Aviles, knew about the affair at the time of her death.
A source told the Daily Mail that Aviles and her husband split after he learned about her affair, but they continued to raise their eight-year-old together.
Adrian, who runs a video surveillance business, had installed cameras at the home they once shared, the Mail noted.
Police used footage from the cameras to verify that Regina was alone when she poured gasoline on herself and burst into flames on September 13. She was airlifted to a hospital, where she died the next morning from her injuries.
Aviles' family has insisted that her death was accidental.
“The last thing she said is, ‘I don’t want to die,” her mother, Nora, told the San Antonio Express News.
The mother has also said that Aviles was distressed about her estranged husband spending the weekend with their son at the time she died.
Aviles had been the regional director for Gonzalez since 2021, and she was often seen with the Texas congressman, who represents a border district including San Antonio, Uvalde, and El Paso.
After Aviles' death, Gonzales, a married father of six, restricted press access at a research facility where he was scheduled to appear, according to KSAT-TV.
Sources told the Mail that Gonzalez also did not attend Aviles' funeral, and her mother, Nora, told the New York Post that she did not remember seeing him there, although she noted she was emotional and may have missed him.
Gonzalez's office released a furious statement that did not directly address the affair rumors, instead accusing "political bottom feeders" of exploiting Aviles' gruesome death.
“To see political bottom feeders distort the circumstances around her passing is truly sickening. Tony Gonzales remains laser-focused on delivering historic achievements for Texas and condemns any attempts to misuse this tragedy," the person said.
Meanwhile, Aviles' bereaved mother told the New York Post that the affair claims are "completely false."
"I don’t think it has any merit,” she said.
