Where Is Lorena Bobbitt Now? All About Her Life 32 Years After She Cut Her Husband's Genitals Off

Lorena Bobbitt’s story is one of the most infamous alleged crimes in American history.

On June 23, 1993, Lorena severed her husband John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis with a kitchen knife, per ABC News. During her trial for malicious wounding, Lorena alleged that John raped and beat her on multiple occasions, including that night, according to The New York Times. (John has denied those accusations.)

The incident sparked a media frenzy, thrusting John and Lorena into the spotlight as their respective trials became front-page news. John was later acquitted of marital sexual assault, while Lorena was acquitted of her charge by reason of temporary insanity, per The New York Times.

In the years since, the case has become the subject of several docuseries, books, podcasts and even a made-for-TV movie, the latter of which Lorena herself helped produce.

“People used to judge me before, saying that they don’t believe my story. To tell the story again is more than a blessing, to me it is an opportunity to tell it right,” Lorena told Entertainment Tonight ahead of the 2020 premiere of Lifetime’s I Was Lorena Bobbitt.

Here’s everything to know about the shocking case, including where Lorena Bobbitt is now.

Who is Lorena Bobbitt?

Lorena was born in 1969 in Ecuador and was raised in Venezuela, per Vanity Fair. After graduating high school, Lorena immigrated to the United States on a student visa and enrolled in a community college in Virginia.

In 1988, Lorena met John, a Marine, at a Marine Corps officers’ ball, according to ABC News.

“I thought John was very handsome. Blue eyes. A man in a uniform, you know? He was almost like a symbol—a Marine, fighting for the country. I believed in this beautiful country,” she told Vanity Fair. “I was swept off my feet. I wanted my American Dream.”

The pair got married on June 18, 1989, according to Vanity Fair. They later settled down in Manassas, Va., per ABC News.

Who is John Bobbitt?

John was born and raised in Niagara Falls, N.Y. In 2019, John told ABC News that his mother struggled to take care of him and his two brothers in their early years. When he was 3 years old, John and his siblings were taken in by their aunt and uncle.

When John and Lorena met, he was serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was later discharged in 1991, per ABC News.

What crimes were Lorena and John Bobbitt accused of committing?

Lorena alleged that John became abusive just one month into their marriage — first verbally, then physically and sexually, she told ABC News in 1993.

“Every time he will hit me, he will just try to force me into the sex again,” she told ABC News in 1993. “It will be in the floor. He just trapped me. I feel trapped.”

Over the course of their marriage, the local police responded to half a dozen complaints of domestic violence at the Bobbitts’ home, per ABC News. In one of these instances, John was charged with battery and assault; in response, he obtained a cross-warrant charging Lorena with battery and assault. The charges against both John and Lorena were eventually dropped, according to ABC News.

In 1993, Lorena attempted to obtain a protective order against John, but left the police station before it was processed, per ABC News.

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Lorena has alleged that on the night of June 23, after a night of drinking, John came home and raped Lorena before he fell asleep.

Per Lorena’s account, after the alleged attack, Lorena went into the kitchen to grab a glass of water and saw a knife on the counter. She then returned to the bedroom and used the knife to dismember her husband’s penis.

“I didn’t want to teach him a lesson,” she later told Vanity Fair. “No, it was survival. Life and death. I was fearing for my life.”

From there, Lorena took off in her car and threw the penis out of the window. The severed appendage was later recovered by the police and surgically reattached to John’s body following a nine-hour operation, per ABC News.

John denied Lorena’s allegations that he abused and raped her.

“Never raped anybody in my life,” he told ABC News in 2019. “Everything was done in my sleep. The sexual advances, the talking … all in a deep sleep.”

What was Lorena Bobbitt charged with?

Lorena was charged with malicious wounding, a felony offense that carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted, per The New York Times. She pled not guilty due to temporary insanity.

During her two-week, televised trial, Lorena alleged that she endured years of abuse from John and claimed that her actions were the result of trauma. Her defense was also backed by several witnesses, who claimed they had seen bruises on Lorena’s body.

On Jan. 22, 1994, Lorena was found not guilty due to temporary insanity, according to The New York Times. She was ordered to spend time at a mental hospital for treatment and evaluation. After 45 days, she was released, per ABC News.

What was John Bobbitt charged with?

Following Lorena’s accusations, John was charged with marital sexual assault, an offense that also faced a maximum sentence of 20 years. John claimed that he did not remember having sex on the night of June 23 and denied all allegations of abuse and rape.

His trial, which was not televised, spanned two days. He was ultimately found not guilty on Nov. 11, 1993, according to The New York Times.

Where is Lorena Bobbitt now?

Lorena, who now goes by her maiden name of Gallo, still resides in Manassas with her daughter and partner of over 20 years, according to TIME.

She is an advocate for domestic violence and the founder of the Lorena Gallo Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides domestic violence and sexual assault prevention, intervention and awareness services in Prince William County, Va.

“One of my missions is to educate the public and young women about the red flags in dating an abuser. I go to colleges and talk to sororities,” she told TIME in 2018. “I volunteer in local shelters for victims of domestic violence in northern Virginia. I’m a facilitator. I’m not a doctor, I’m not a psychologist — but we teach them to set boundaries, so eventually they end up figuring out the answer themselves.”

Lorena has also been involved in several of the projects that tell her side of the story, including Amazon Prime Video’s 2019 docuseries Lorena, which was produced by Jordan Peele.

Where is John Bobbitt now?

After his trial, John went on to have a short-lived porn career and was a recurring guest on The Howard Stern Show. He now lives in Sarasota, Fla.

In the years since, John has been arrested several times and served jail time for violence against two different women, per The New York Times. (He has denied those allegations.)

During an April 2024 interview with The Sun, John revealed that he was diagnosed with toxic peripheral polyneuropathy, a condition linked to his time at Camp Lejeune, a notorious military base in North Carolina where the water was severely contaminated in the 1980s.

John claims that the condition caused him to develop both nerve damage and osteomyelitis, a bone infection that leads to ulcers and requires skin grafts. In 2023, he had his remaining toes amputated, which he said left him unable to work.

The former Marine also attributes the downfall of his marriage to Lorena to the side effects of the contamination at Lejeune.

“I wasn’t behaving the way I should have,” he told The Sun. “Maybe I would have made better decisions if my cognitive functioning wasn’t distorted by the chemicals.”