Where is Ale Mendoza now? Netflix’s ‘A Child of My Own’ fake pregnancy case explained
Netflix’s ‘A Child of My Own’ examines the case of Eleonor Alejandra “Ale” Marín Mendoza, whose attempt to convince her family that she was pregnant ended with a newborn being taken from a Mexico City hospital. Released on August 13, the documentary reconstructs the months leading up to Mendoza’s arrest and then presents court records, testimony, and accounts that challenge her version of events. It also explains what happened to her husband, Arturo Calderón Gamiño, who said he believed the pregnancy was real. Her story began with three miscarriages and before becoming a kidnapping investigation in June 2009.
Mendoza was found guilty on November 9, 2011, of unlawfully kidnapping a child under 16 with the intention of harming her or someone else. The court sentenced her to 13 years and four months in prison and imposed a fine. She completed her prison sentence and was released in 2022, with Gamiño among those waiting outside the prison to welcome her. The couple had separated when Mendoza was sentenced, and Gamiño had a son with another woman before they reconciled.
Mendoza married Gamiño at age 17 while pregnant with their first child, but she suffered a miscarriage. By age 25, she had experienced two more pregnancy losses and felt pressure from her husband, his relatives, and wider social expectations to become a mother. After the third miscarriage, which followed in vitro fertilization, she chose not to tell either family and continued acting as though she were pregnant. “I didn’t want to hear yet again, ‘I told you so,’ or ‘It’s your fault,’ or ‘You don’t understand,’” Mendoza says in ‘A Child of My Own.’
While working as an administrator at Hospital General de México, Mendoza gained weight and altered her medical records to maintain the pregnancy story. She claimed that pregnant patient Mayra Navarro had agreed to let her take the baby after giving birth, an account Navarro denies in the documentary. “There was never a deal, never,” Navarro says, adding that she did not meet Mendoza before her daughter Katya Valentina’s birth. Security footage from June 17, 2009, showed Mendoza leaving the hospital with a large gift bag containing the newborn.
Mendoza then met Gamiño at a Mexico City hotel, where police arrested them hours later. She maintained that her husband had no involvement and that he learned the child was not theirs only after the kidnapping. Navarro said Mendoza approached her bedside after the delivery, asked questions, and appeared to be a social worker. When Navarro returned from using the bathroom, Katya was missing, prompting the hospital to report the disappearance and the police to trace addresses in Mendoza’s employee file.
Gamiño spent two years and six months in custody before he was acquitted. Experts who were a part of the documentary believed she had experienced a psychological pregnancy, a condition in which someone believes they are pregnant and can develop symptoms despite not carrying a fetus. The couple is now together, and both care for his young son. Mendoza is understood to remain in Mexico, according to Elle. The reports do not identify the family’s current city or provide further details about their private life. ‘A Child of My Own’ is currently streaming on Netflix.
