Photo:Anna Webber/Getty; Ian West/PA Images via Getty
Anna Webber/Getty; Ian West/PA Images via Getty
Paul Walker’slife and careerare heavily explored in the documentaryI Am Paul Walker, which aired on The CW on Jan. 13, including his previous relationship with Rebecca Soteros.
Beforemaking it big in Hollywoodwith his role in 2001’sThe Fast and the Furious, Walker dated Soteros, whom he had known since childhood.
The couple eventually welcomed a child together in November 1998, a daughter namedMeadow Walker, but their relationship didn’t last.
Shortly after her parents split, Meadow moved with her mother to Hawaii, where she resided until she was 13. She then moved to California to live with her father. Two years later,Walker tragically died in a car crash.
Here’s everything to know about Soteros.
She and Paul Walker were childhood sweethearts
Mauricio Santana/Getty
Soteros and Walker knew each other for a long time, having grown up together.
“You have to know that his relationship with Rebecca … they were kids together,” Walker’s sister Ashlie says in the documentary. “And they were sweethearts and then they were friends, and then they were sweethearts and then they were friends.”
She and Paul Walker had a contentious relationship at times
However, Walker’s uncle Rhett explained that the couple faced several ups and downs as they had a “push me, pull me relationship.”
“It was tough,” Walker said in archive footage in the documentary. “The mom and I weren’t together and I was raised Mormon. I was told ‘Mommy and Daddy are supposed to be together.’ And that was a hard one for me. I was so conflicted — I was thinking down the road. I knew where I was at. I was with chicks, having fun — I was an animal. I want to be [a family man], my heart wants to be in it, but the mind just isn’t following it.”
She was really close with Paul Walker’s family
Though Walker and Soteros had their struggles, his family said she became close to everyone when they were dating. “[She] basically become a very big part of our family,” Walker’s uncle said.
“Rebecca had been around so much that I treated her as if she was my daughter. [We] became a family that’s a little different,” Walker’s mother explained of her son’s then-girlfriend.
She and Paul Walker welcomed their daughter Meadow in 1998
Meadow Walker/Instagram
On Nov. 4, 1998, Walker and Soteros welcomed their first and only child together,a daughter named Meadow Walker, in Los Angeles.
In the years since Walker’s death, Meadow has gone on to become a successful model, and she continues to honor her father’s legacy through her charity work. She has also remained close with hisFast & Furiouscostars and has even become a part of the franchise herself.
She raised Meadow in Hawaii
As Walker rose to fame, Soteros dealt with trying to keep her daughter out of the public eye. “Things were not easy for Rebecca because of people realizing who Meadow was and they would come up in the grocery store and try to pick her up and it was a little scary,” Walker’s mom said in the documentary.
As a result, Soteros decided to move to Hawaii with her daughter. Meadow resided in Hawaii until she was 13 when she moved back to L.A. and lived with her father full-time.
“My heart was desperate for so many years with the situation with my daughter. She’s living in Hawaii and she’s there and I’m running here. My daughter lives with me full time now andshe’s the best partner I’ve ever had,” the actor toldEntertainment Weeklyjust months before his death. “It’s so nuts. I’ve never had anything like this in my life.”
She worked as a teacher
Though not much is known about Soteros’ background, Walker’s mother said in the documentary that she moved to Hawaii to finish college and become a teacher.
She has stayed out of the spotlight
Soteros has largely stayed out of the spotlight in recent years. Though Meadow regularly shares sweet tributes to her father on social media, Soteros doesn’t appear to have any public profiles.
source: people.com
