Hollywood’s biggest names often struggle with keeping their personal lives out of the headlines, but that’s not the case for Vin Diesel. The Fast & Furious megastar has been dating Paloma Jiménez for over a decade, has three kids with his model girlfriend, and yet, very little is known about their relationship. By staying away from the spotlight, the couple has managed to keep their special bond private. However, despite not knowing much about their union, there are a few things we can learn from them.

There’s no official word on how Vin Diesel first met Paloma Jiménez (whose full name is actually Karla Paloma Jiménez Denagustin), but what we do know is that the pair has been together since 2007. 

While Vin Diesel’s acting career grew, bringing him an estimated $225 million net worth, Jiménez was busy pursuing her own passion: modeling. The Mexican-born beauty has been represented by Two Management, as well as by ID Model Management and Look Models and has appeared in commercials for major brands like Pantene, Coca-Cola, and Honda. But when the pair began dating, a different priority took over their lives: family.

A few years before Vin Diesel met the love of his life, he was cast in 2005’s The Pacifier: a comedy in which he had to work with five kids. As he later told Parade, it was on the set of that flick that he first realized he wanted to become a father. His parenting aspirations came to light out of nowhere and he decided that he needed to find the right person to start a family.

“Working with babies on the set for so long, it really started to bring out this desire to have a child,” he revealed. But the timing wasn’t right and he knew it. Speaking on meeting Paloma and starting a family with her, Vin said:

It took a couple years after that to find the right person and to hopefully be mature enough to be a great father, which is really all you want to do.

Paloma Jiménez was obviously The One that Diesel had been waiting for and, in April 2008, they had their first child together. “It’s amazing how it becomes your primary focus: ‘Am I going to be a good dad?’” the actor told Parade after welcoming daughter Hania Riley Sinclair.

As the Chronicles of Riddick star revealed in 2019, it was the late Paul Walker who inspired him to put family above all else — especially work. Diesel was on set shooting Fast & Furious 4 in 2008, right as Jiménez was getting ready to deliver their first child. The actor was torn between his personal and professional obligations until Walker set him straight. “He came to my trailer at the end of the day and said, ‘Something is on your mind.’ I had a secret,” Diesel recalled. “I wasn’t telling anyone in the world that my daughter was about to be born. I’ll never forget what he said to me. He said, ‘Vin, you go into that hospital room, and you cut the umbilical cord. It will be the best day of your life.’”

As for how involved he should be in the delivery, Walker had some life-changing advice on that too. Speaking with People, Diesel remembered asking his co-star, who had already been a father, if he should be in the delivery room with Jiménez on the big day. “He says, ‘You know, so many guys will tell you, “Don’t do it… you can’t stomach it… you’ll never look at the girl the same,” [but] it’s the best thing you’ll ever do in your life.’” Diesel decided to listen and the experience only brought him closer both to his girlfriend and his daughter. He said:

Vin Diesel and Paloma Jiménez welcomed their second child, son Vincent Sinclair, in 2010, and daughter Pauline Sinclair followed in March 2015. While naming their third babe, the pair decided to pay tribute to the person who had been so influential in their lives as parents: Paul Walker. Revealing the decision to name his daughter after his late friend, Diesel told TODAY that “it felt like, you know, a way to keep his memory a part of my family and a part of my world.” What’s more, Diesel’s sure that Walker “was in the room. There’s no other person that I was thinking about as I was cutting this umbilical cord,” he continued. “I just knew he was there.”

And his advice is still at the top of Diesel’s mind. These days, family comes before all else. Case in point: When the XxX star was called out for having a “dad bod” in 2015, he quickly fired back, telling People he doesn’t care because “anybody who has kids wakes up every day wanting to be a better parent and that’s your main focus. And you are less vain and less narcissistic and your joy comes from your children and less about you,” he explained.

Although he doesn’t often speak about his girlfriend of 13 years, it’s clear that Vin Diesel is madly in love. Whenever he does open up about his relationship, he has nothing but sweet words to share. For example, in 2014, he posted a snap of Jiménez holding their son to Instagram and called her his “Mayan Queen.” He gushed, “There is no greater gift to a man than a loving mother to his children.” 

And while attending the L.A. premiere or xXx: Return of Xander Cage in 2017, he sang his love’s praises, telling Entertainment Tonight, “I’m speechless. She’s so stunningly beautiful, but the thing people don’t realize is she’s my rock, so she’s so stunningly beautiful on the inside,” he told ET. He added:

Vin Diesel and Paloma Jiménez have chosen to keep their love under wraps and it’s clearly working. The actor and model have kept their romance close to their hearts from the get-go and over a decade later, they’re as strong as ever. If there’s one thing they can teach us it’s that a loving, supportive relationship doesn’t have to play out for all to see. Not posting about your personal life on social media and not talking about it in public doesn’t necessarily make it any less meaningful. Paloma still accompanies him to red carpet events but she usually avoids the cameras. Their subtle, private showcases of love make the union more special as it is so rare to see couples shying away from overtly public displays of affection these days.

What has been proven abundantly clear over the years is that Vin Diesel does not require public displays of affection to demonstrate his love for Paloma. While a lot of us don’t encounter paparazzi and red carpet events in our regular life, we can still emulate Vin Diesel’s quiet but powerful expressions of love.

We don’t have to give in to the external pressure of making sure everybody in the world gets to know about our personal life. We can express love however we want — what matters at the end of the day is that we are true to our significant other, that we make sure that they know we care about them, and that we are able to cherish time with each other without the watchful eye of the whole world.

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