American actor, Quinton Aaron, best known for portraying NFL star Michael Oher in the 2009 Oscar-winning film The Blind Side, has shared a deeply personal ordeal involving both his health crisis and a startling revelation about his marriage.
Speaking in an interview with ABC News on Monday, the 41-year-old actor recounted that the truth about his wife, Margarita DeLeon, came to light while he was recovering from a spinal stroke suffered in January.
Aaron said he had slipped into a four-day coma in February, and it was after he regained consciousness that his family informed him of the situation.
According to him, he was told that DeLeon was still legally married to another man throughout the period of their relationship.
“The entire time we were together, she told me she had been divorced for 10 plus years,” Aaron said.
“She even told the person where we were getting married, ‘Oh yes, I have all the documents. I can email over to you the divorce decree.'”
Aaron admitted he never personally reviewed any divorce papers, a decision he now regrets.
He said that later, a lawyer uncovered records suggesting DeLeon’s previous marriage, which began in 1992, had not been legally dissolved.
Following that discovery, his family stepped in and revoked her authority over his medical and legal decisions.
“If I had a chance to do it over, I would have done my due diligence. I would’ve definitely done a lot more research,” Aaron reflected.
DeLeon, however, has offered her own account, telling ABC News that she was unaware her divorce had not been finalized.
She explained that she only learned of the issue after documents were brought forward during Aaron’s hospital stay.
“When I told Quinton back in the hospital bed, I said to him, ‘Baby, this information that your family pulled up on me, you know, I wasn’t aware of it.’ I said, ‘This is what I found out. It is true,'”
DeLeon’s estranged husband also spoke to ABC News, saying he believed the divorce process had been completed years earlier. He has since filed for divorce in February to formally end the marriage.
Aaron’s health battle began on January 26 when he suffered a spinal stroke that left him on life support and in a coma. He is now undergoing intensive rehabilitation but says he has yet to regain the ability to walk.
“The doctors projected that it could take months, it could be a year, or up to a year,” he said. “I said, ‘I don’t claim that time frame. I’ll be walking a lot sooner than you think.'”
