Francisca Lachapel Shares Her Love Story And Wedding Plans

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Francisca Lachapel can't stop smiling. And why should she? The co-host of Despierta América is happily working on not one but two shows for Univision-owned networks - and is counting down the months leading up to her wedding to fiancé Francesco Zampogna.

“I'm happy, you can't hide that,” says a glowing Lachapel, who thanks the October cover of People en Español with Zampogna, and sat down for a tell-all exclusive interview on how they met, fell in love and became engaged - now an epic family story that ends in the sand dunes of Dubai in December 2018 - and are planning their 2020 wedding.

The Dominican television personality also shares how Italian-American Zampogna has won her family over with his Spanish-speaking skills - and even managed to out-Dominican her. “I tell him, 'Francesco, you're more Dominican than I am,'” laughs Lachapel, 30, about her businessman and investor fiancé, 35. “On our first trip to the Dominican Republic, I was so nervous. I kept saying, 'Where am I going to take this man?' I wanted to impress him, take him to a fine restaurant, but I didn't know where to take him because I left my country a long time ago and didn't know many things. I was mortified.”

And she adds, laughing, “When we got there, he said, 'No, we're not going there, we're going here. He took me places, ordered his beer, tostones. He's more Dominican than I am! He knows how to move around there, has contacts, friends. He loves my culture, he respects my people and he loves how we are, the music, how we speak. It's perfect. God had him there, in a little corner, just for me.”

Her mom, Divina Montero, also is in love with Zampogna, a former University of Miami football player. “My mom is all like, 'My beautiful son, say hi to Francesco; they write each other messages,”shares Lachapel, who can't wait to have kids with her future husband. "My brother, too! My brother lays on the Dominican [slang] really fast and Francesco understands him!”

Adds to smitten Zampogna, "I tell her all the time, 'You make me a better person,' and not just me, other people around us".

To read more of this exclusive interview, pick up the October issue of People en Español on newsstands now. And if you want to congratulate Lachapel in person, join her at Festival People En Español on October 5 and 6 at the Washington Heights Armory Track in New York City. For more information and to register, go to festivaldepeopleenespanol.eventbrite.com.