Leontina was said to have been abandoned as an infant along with her two brothers. They were raised in a church-run orphanage, but were separated when the brothers were adopted while she stayed behind in the orphanage.
At the age of 12, she ran away and married Gerardo, a 30-year-old mule driver. She said that because she had been abandoned as an infant, she had pledged never to give up any children. Despite being aged between 59 and 62 at the time of the Times interview, she was open to the prospect of more children, though she recognised that it would be a struggle: "If God sends them to me, yes. But I'd like God to also consider me, now that I'm approaching old age."
She had tried birth control with an intrauterine device but it was not a success: "I got pregnant anyway and nearly died ... I think it was a punishment from God for doing something I shouldn't."
When Leontina's story became public she became something of a celebrity in Chile. She appeared on the popular television show Sábados Gigante de Don Francisco, whose host Mario Kreutzberger (aka Don Francisco) presented her with an award for her fertility and maternal devotion. The country's major daily newspapers all wrote feature articles about her under headlines such as "The Incredible Story of Lady Leontina, Wife of the 'Infallible' Cowhand Gerardo Albina" (as La Tercera put it).
Although her papers at the Chilean Civil Registry showed that she had given birth to 20 children since 1955, she was unable to prove that she had had the remaining children: "I don't have any records on the children who were born before 1955. Everything was lost in a fire in Argentina." Because it was unable to verify the exact number of her children (estimates ranged from 55 to 64), in 1991 Guinness decided to delete Leontina's record.
Chilean authorities started to become suspicious of her claims as she registered the birth of another child in 1995 at the age of 69: only three women have ever been recorded as giving birth past the age of 66. After she died of diabetes on August 7, 1998, a subsequent police investigation found that she had actually given birth to only 14 of her claimed children, with the remainder being taken in from the streets or given to her by poor women including her cousins.
According to police inspector Cristina Rojo, Leontina had perpetrated the fraud to claim food assistance from the Chilean government, and had systematically registered the children in rural civic offices that lacked computerised records to avoid detection.
One of these children was also discovered to be the product of an incestuous relationship between her husband, Geraldo, and one of the couple's granddaughters. Geraldo, who was 91 at the time, was said to be a fugitive, while police were also reported to be investigating a number of the couple's other children and relatives for having taken part in the fraud.