A former aide to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) reportedly confessed to having an affair with him before she committed suicide last year, according to a report.
An un-named “former staffer” who had worked in Gonzales’s “district office” told the San Antonio Express-News that Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, 35, had admitted to having an affair with Gonzales in 2024. Santos-Aviles, who had served as Gonzales’s “regional district director,” died in September 2025 after she “poured gasoline over herself and was engulfed in flames.”
The former staffer for Gonzales, “who asked not to be named,” claimed that Santos-Aviles, a mother to an eight-year-old boy, “Spiraled into a depression after her husband discovered the relationship and Gonzales abruptly cut her off,” according to the outlet.
The former staffer explained to the outlet that “the relationship” between Gonzales and Santos-Aviles “became known to some staff members during the 2024 election cycle,” and that after Santos-Aviles’s husband, Adrian Aviles, found out about the affair, “Aviles later texted a group of Gonzales’ legislative district staffers to expose the relationship:”
The former staffer said the relationship became known to some staff members during the 2024 election cycle. He said Gonzales stayed at the ex-staffer’s family’s rental cabin in Concan, near Uvalde, during the primary campaign, and that on two occasions in May 2024, Gonzales and Santos-Aviles went there together and stayed for one to two hours.
He said Santos-Aviles called him crying and distraught two weeks later to say her husband, Adrian Aviles, had discovered text messages that revealed her relationship with Gonzales. She told the staffer they had been having an affair. It was May 29, the day after Gonzales narrowly won a GOP primary runoff election against Brandon Herrera. He said Aviles later texted a group of Gonzales’ legislative district staffers to expose the relationship.
After Aviles “texted the staff about the affair,” the Texas congressman “and his district director, Jalen Falcon” allegedly “canceled meetings with local organizations that had been arranged by Santos-Aviles and the former staffer,” the former staffer claimed to the outlet.
The two of them also did not go with Gonzales to “any Uvalde visits after that point,” according to the outlet. The former staffer also claimed prior to Santos-Aviles’ death, her “distress intensified.”
“She talked about Tony every day,” the former staffer told the outlet. “She went from the number one employee in the office to nothing.”
The former staffer also shared a “text thread” from April 27, 2025, with the outlet, in which Santos-Aviles stated: “I had (sic) affair with our boss and I’m fine. You will be fine.”
A month before Santos-Aviles’ death, she reportedly “attempted suicide” resulting in police officers being “called to her home,” the former staffer told the outlet.
Aviles, who had been with Santos-Aviles “for 21 years” overall, and “married” to her for seven years, expressed that marriages, and relationships “have their seasons,” while adding that “love, even when complicated, is endless.”
Breitbart News’s Paul Bois reported in October 2025 that “multiple sources confirmed the alleged affair to the Daily Mail. “Santos-Aviles’ family also insisted that she had not started the fire on purpose.”
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