Who Is Benjamin Bratt's Wife? All About Talisa Soto Bratt

Benjamin Bratt and Talisa Soto Bratt share two children, son Mateo and daughter Sophia

Benjamin Bratt has been married to his wife, Talisa Soto Bratt, for more than two decades.

After all those years together, the Mother of the Bride actor is still raving about his wife. “Most people don’t know her. If they see her, what they see is a spectacularly beautiful woman who worked in the business. But to know her is to really love her,” Benjamin told Esquire in 2022.

Talisa, a New York-born model and actress, and Benjamin met in the 1990s before later romantically connecting and getting married in 2002. Since then, the couple has gone on to become parents to two children, supporting one another in and out of the spotlight.

“I think of her as almost superhuman,” Benjamin explained to Esquire of Talisa.

So, who is Benjamin Bratt’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Talisa Soto Bratt and her relationship with the actor.

Talisa has Puerto Rican heritage

While Talisa was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., her parents are from Puerto Rico.

Talisa is one of four children. In the kids’ early years, their parents moved the family to Northampton, Mass., but Talisa still calls New York City “home.”

She was a model before she started acting

While Talisa became most known for a film role, she first stepped into the world of entertainment as a model, a career she began pursuing as a teen.

To date, Talisa has been featured in campaigns for Calvin Klein, Cartier, Versace, Revlon and more. She also has appeared on the covers of major magazines including Vogue, British Vogue, Elle France, Elle UK, Glamour, Self and Town & Country. In 1988, Harper’s Bazaar named Talisa as one of the best models in the world.

In August 2002, Talisa and Benjamin were featured on the cover of Vanity Fair, just months after their wedding. The cover was shot by famed fashion photographer Bruce Weber, who has collaborated with Talisa since she was just 15, weeks after she signed with Click Model Management.

Speaking of his first time traveling to Paris for work in 1982, Bruce said that the memory that stands out to him most from that time “was the fashion world’s immediate and complete fascination with the young Puerto Rican model,” Talisa.

He added that “she didn’t speak English with such fluency, but by her second day there she had all of Paris “bewitched, bothered and bewildered.”

She was the first Latina to be featured on the cover of Vogue in both America and the U.K.

While today’s magazine covers predominantly feature celebrities, in the 1980s, models dominated both covers and editorial spreads. In February 1986, at just 15 years old, Talisa became the first Latina to cover British Vogue.

Later, in April 1989, she became the first Latina to grace the cover of American Vogue.

She is a former Bond girl

No doubt springing from her already successful modeling career, Talisa’s fame skyrocketed when she appeared in the 1989 James Bond film License to Kill, alongside Timothy Dalton as 007.

She went on to appear in other films, including 1992's The Mambo Kings and 1994's Don Juan DeMarco.

The pair met in the early '90s

While it’s commonly thought that the couple met in the early aughts, according to Benjamin, he and Talisa actually met at an audition for a film called Blood in Blood Out in the early 1990s.

She costarred with Benjamin in the 2001 film Piñero

Nearly a decade after they met, Benjamin and Talisa shared the screen in the movie Piñero, which was released in 2001. “She was a very famous model and actor; she was a Bond girl. Within six months after consummating our affair, I got down on a knee and proposed,” Benjamin recalled to Esquire in 2022.

“Falling in love with Talisa cemented what I’ve instinctually always known: Above being an artist, even above defining myself as an actor, I see myself as a husband and a father first," he continued. "I don’t know if that’s been a hindrance or a help in terms of the professional path I’ve been on, but at this point it’s hard to really care too much about it.”

They married in 2002

As reported by Hello! magazine, Benjamin and Talisa married on April 13, 2002, in San Francisco, the groom's hometown. According to the publication, the wedding was an “intimate gathering.”

She shares two children with Benjamin

While Talisa and Benjamin largely keep their family life private, the couple shares two children, daughter Sophia, born in 2002, and son Mateo, born in 2005.

During an appearance on Today with Hoda & Jenna in January 2023, Benjamin spoke about his family, saying, “Our kids are the center of our universe.”

The couple works together to support daughter Sophia

In his 2022 interview with Esquire, Benjamin explained that he and Talisa’s daughter experienced a brain injury at birth.

“Almost everything we do, every decision we make personally and professionally, is informed by our daughter, Sophia, and her needs. She incurred a brain injury at birth, so she faces a host of challenges," he said.

Benjamin cited Sophia as the couple’s reason for returning to New York. “She’s 19 now, and we’re working to help her gain independence," he explained. "We’ve lived this kind of vagabond lifestyle in search of the best therapies, the best schooling, the best social situation for her."

The devoted dad continued: "In New York, there’s an amazing transitional program that helps her with how to function: how to go shopping, how to use money, how to buy groceries, how to fold and put away clothing, how to cook a meal. She’s an amazing young woman, very spirited, very competitive.”

Talisa had breast cancer

In 2022, Benjamin shared on Today that his wife discovered she had breast cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is something I typically would keep close-held, but through the pandemic, through self-exam and then by going to her yearly mammogram, she discovered that she was positive for breast cancer,” the actor explained.

He said Talisa encouraged him to share her story in an effort to remind other women how important it is “to get your screenings yearly, that you have to self-advocate for yourself and take care of yourself.”

"You have to get to the doctor and make these exams a part of your regular life," he added.

He went on to say that Talisa was now cancer-free before the couple took a vacation to celebrate 20 years of marriage.

After years on the West Coast, the family now lives in New York

Benjamin is originally from San Francisco, so in 2007 the couple made their way from New York back to the West Coast. After several years spent there, the family moved to Massachusetts, where Talisa’s family lives. However, “just before Covid struck, we had the idea to relocate back to [New York],” Benjamin told Esquire.

Much of the family’s relocating has been in support of their daughter. Benjamin continued, praising Talisa: “Raising children, especially one who is as challenged as our daughter, is physically and emotionally exhausting. My wife carries the brunt of it because when I go off to work, she is left behind. She’s my hero.”

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