Danny Trejo finds estranged niece on tour bus 79 years after being separated from her mom
The woman on the bus turned out to be the daughter of Danny's sibling, Marlene, with whom he had separated when he was just three years old
Behind his on-screen persona of gritty criminals, tough-as-nails mobsters, and tattooed street thugs, Danny Trejo hides a soft-hearted, benevolent creature. Recently, his kindness clashed with fate’s invisible plan, and he received one of the most precious gifts of his life. According to a July 21, 2026, clip published by TMZ and reshared by Entertainment Weekly, the "Breaking Bad" actor was escorting tourists in the TMZ Brunch Bus when one of the passengers stepped up to reveal that she was the daughter of his long-separated sister. Trejo was left feeling over the moon over this reunion he least expected in his lifetime.
Brunch leads to a reunion
TMZ Brunch Bus is a two-hour Sunday party tour where celebrity hosts take a group of tourists cruising through West Hollywood in Los Angeles, guiding them over music, movies, and entertainment while they stop by trendy hotspots for snacks and drinks. On this Sunday, Trejo hopped onto the bus where cheering tourists awaited to shake hands with him. Inside the bus, he started the interaction by recalling one of his experiences about saying yes to a low-budget movie. “Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else,” he told the group.
'Are you kidding?'
The Machete star was scooting the tourists across Hollywood, hanging out with DJ Vox and making stops at his restaurants, Trejo's Coffee & Donuts and Trejo's Tacos, when a woman in the bus leaned over to him and whispered that she was the daughter of his estranged sister Marlene. “Are you kidding?” Trejo exclaimed. Before the actor could digest this unsuspecting reunion, a photographer aboard spread the news, “His niece is on the bus!” After a few moments, Trejo couldn’t hold back his excitement. He burst out playfully, “I have a relative on this bus. How do you like that?” The tourists hooted in one chorus.
Later on, Trejo expressed thanks to Harvey Levin, the co-creator and editor of the tabloid news organization, for this reunion. “Harvey, I love you man,” he said. His niece joined in and said everyone in her family loves Levin just as much. “I’ve been watching TMZ since I was, like, 5 because of her,” she recalled.
Uncertainty of estranged relationships
In November 2024, the Harris Poll surveyed 1,068 US adults and found that about half of the US adults were estranged from at least one family member. 35% reported being estranged from an immediate family member such as a parent or a sibling. According to a survey of 354 individuals, documented in the Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Science, about 43.5% reported experiencing an estrangement. 46.7% said their estrangement is now dissolved and their relationships are reunified.
Fate has mysterious ways
In the case of Trejo, who hails from the suburb of Maywood, he had a turbulent childhood, as he also described in his 2021 memoir "Trejo: My Life of Crime." According to Entertainment Weekly, Trejo’s father, Dionisio, prevented him from seeing his mother Delores and his half-sister Dyhan for years. He didn’t meet his mother and sister until he was in county jail in 1965. They had read about him in the papers and came to visit him. Marlene was separated from him when he was just three years old. Who could have thought a brunch tour would reunite the long-lost siblings in such a way? Probably that’s why they say that fate has mysterious ways.
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