Virginia Vallejo, Colombian-born author and media personality, Cartago, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, August 26^th 1949. The granddaughter of Finance Minister Eduardo Vallejo, she attended the prestigious Anglo-Colombian School in Bogotá. In 1969 she married architect Fernando Borrero, whom she divorced two years later.

CAREER IN TELEVISION.

Virginia Vallejo’s television career began in 1972 in Oiga Colombia, Revista del Sábado, and as a reporter for TV Sucesos A3. She co-hosted Éxitos 73, Éxitos 74 and Éxitos 75 - Saturday night musical - and, from 1974 to 1977, worked as international editor of TV Sucesos. During the mid 1970s she presented television contest TV Crucigrama, a children’s show and Cocine de Primera con Segundo. In 1978 she starred in Colombian Connection and married Argentinean director David Stivel, whom she divorced three years later. As anchor woman of Noticiero 24 Horas in 1979 and 1980, she won the Best News Presenter of the Year award. From 1979 to 1981 she co-directed Cuidado con las Mujeres! in television and from 1980 to 1982 Llegaron las Mujeres! in radio.

In 1981 she was the only Colombian journalist present at the wedding of Charles and Diana, Princes of Wales, which she broadcasted nonstop for six hours. In 1982 she declined one of the leading roles in Hal Bartlett’s “Love is Forever” to start her own television company in Colombia. In 1982-1983 she co directed Al Ataque! and, from 1982 to 1984, presented Hoy por Hoy, Magazine del Lunes. In 1983-1984 she co hosted El Show de las Estrellas and, in 1984 worked as international editor of Grupo Radial Colombiano.

From 1982 to 1987 she became the image and spokeswoman of Medias Di Lido. In 1985, after her contract with Telediario was cancelled, Channel 51 of Miami invited her to become their first anchor, but she declined and chose to remain in Colombia. In 1988 she traveled to Berlin with a scholarship in economic journalism from the German Government and studied at the Institut für Journalismus. In 1991 she declined an offer from Deutsche Welle when she was offered the leading role in Sombra de tu Sombra. In 1992-1994 she became the international editor of Noticiero Todelar and co directed Picantísimo, both in radio.

   Between 1973 and 1985 Virginia Vallejo received seventeen nominations as Best Television Presenter in different categories and won the award on two occasions. From  the early 1970s to the early 1990s she appeared regularly on the lists of the ten most famous Colombian women, the ten best-dressed and the ten most hated. Since 1972, she has been on 97 magazine covers, including Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. She has been portrayed in Town and Country (“The Beautiful Women of Eldorado”) and People, and quoted in Time, Vanity Fair and Newsweek, among many others.

Since 1972 Virginia Vallejo has been on the front page of every Colombian newspaper, El Nuevo Herald and dozens of newspapers worldwide. In the course of her life, she has granted more than two thousand interviews for television, radio, newspapers and magazines.

In 2000, magazine Hombre chose Virginia Vallejo as one of the 10 sexiest Colombian women of the 20th century.