roberto was the long-time boyfriend of paloma lopez-fitzgerald; they began dating at least by may 2004. roberto and paloma met in puerto arena, mexico; roberto is a mexican citizen, while paloma is american and was sent to live with her aunt maria for financial reasons. paloma moved to harmony in mid-2004, and roberto joined her there about a year later. during their relationship, roberto enlisted paloma's help in smuggling prescription drugs to senior citizens in the united states, and paloma had roberto pretend to be a john once in order to bring paloma's troubled friend jessica bennett home to her family for christmas.