Esteban Lamothe y Débora Nishimoto are about to take one of the most important steps in their relationship. The couple, who met during the filming of Envidiosa, will marry on December 4, according to the exclusive report provided by Pepe Ochoa on LAM. After more than two years together, a story that began almost without them realizing it has reached a new chapter.
What’s notable is that, although in the Netflix series their characters, Matías y Mei, had a love story, in real life the bond between the actors took much longer to become romance. For months they were simply colleagues, shared long shooting days and built a friendship that eventually became the foundation of their relationship.
“We met while filming, for eight months nothing happened and when there was one week left to finish, we started dating,” Lamothe recalled some time later.
First they were colleagues and then friends
The filming of Envidiosa lasted about eight months and gave them the chance to get to know each other without the pressure of a relationship. In fact, Lamothe emphasized that that period was important for them to discover themselves in a natural way.
“We were getting to know each other on set,” explained the actor, who believed that starting as colleagues allowed them to discover one another without romantic expectations.
For Débora, at the outset the connection was also far from being a romance. In an interview she shared that Lamothe made her laugh a lot and that she even thought it would be best if they became friends.
“Well, I hope he becomes my friend, because he makes me laugh a lot,” she recalled.
And humor ended up being one of the things that enamored her the most. “We laugh a lot together. That’s key for me,” the actress explained, who also highlighted that since they’ve been together that sense of complicity has multiplied.
The books that started bringing them closer
In the midst of the filming days another point of connection emerged: literature.
Débora explained that the bond began to take a special shape beginning with an exchange of books. She lent him El mármol, by César Aira, and he gave her a book by Daniel Durán. Then followed poems, music and conversations that stretched beyond the fiction.
“I think our connection started with an exchange of books during the filming of Envidiosa,” Nishimoto said.
Gradually they began to find excuses to continue seeing each other outside the set. They went to the cinema, to concerts or simply sought any plan that would allow the tie to endure once the workday ended.
“We’d invent any excuse to meet again. Until one day, he directly asked me out,” recalled Débora.
Lamothe also recalled that moment from his own perspective. He explained that during filming there was “chemistry and affection,” but he didn’t yet consider it a romantic relationship. Everything changed when there was only about a week left to finish filming.
“Only at the end, when there was a week left to finish, I invited her to my home and that’s where we started,” he recounted.
The romance began just before the series ended
The start of the relationship carried a touch of vertigo. After eight months of sharing workdays, they dared to cross that line just as filming was nearing its end.
In fact, Lamothe admitted that they only had one day of filming as a couple before the series wrapped.
“We shot just one day being a couple,” he recalled.
Débora, for her part, explained that only with the passage of time could both of them understand that, during the shoot, something had begun to grow that they hadn’t identified at the time. In retrospect, she felt that the connection had appeared before they themselves could name it.
The first public sign arrived in September 2024, when a photo of them at a Los Cardales restaurant began to circulate. The image fueled rumors and shortly after Débora confirmed that there was more than friendship between them.
“We’re getting to know each other,” the actress said at the time.
In November, Lamothe finally confirmed the relationship and summed up the origin of the romance with a line that sounded like it was written for a series: “Envidiosa gave me a girlfriend.”
A story that had to weather the distance
The beginning of the romance faced another small, unexpected obstacle. Soon after they started dating, Débora traveled to Spain and stayed there for several weeks.
For Lamothe, distance arrived when the relationship was still taking shape and he wasn’t entirely sure what place it occupied in her life. He recounted that there came a moment when he decided to call her to ask directly whether he should wait for her.
“I asked what was going on, that I was here waiting, whether I should wait for her or not and she told me yes,” he remembered.
The answer was enough. The bond continued to grow and, when Débora returned, the relationship took on a definitive direction.
Trips, complicity and a life increasingly shared
With the romance now out in the open, the couple began to share more moments outside the shoots. In December 2024 they traveled together to the south to spend Christmas and later they also crossed paths in Chile for work commitments. They also enjoyed other trips together at later dates.
Débora said those trips were a way to learn how they functioned as a pair: “Each trip works very well.”
But beyond the destinations, there was something everyday that seemed to bind them especially. They both enjoy cooking, talking, literature and music. “I feel that each one expands the other’s world,” Nishimoto said.
And that sense of being one another’s complement grew until it became a shared life project.
Living together and “our nest”
In July 2026, Lamothe and Nishimoto took another significant step: they decided to move in together.
After looking for a while, they found a house to start a new chapter. Living together meant blending their everyday worlds: Esteban’s son, Débora’s dog and cat.
Months later, the actress spoke about that decision with special emotion and described the home they built as “our nest.” She also compared choosing a house together to a kind of marriage in itself.
The couple had already traversed, in this way, several of the major steps of a relationship: getting to know each other, falling in love, sustaining a long-distance connection, traveling together and finally sharing a home.
“I didn’t think about marriage until I met him”
And there’s a detail that makes the current news even more special.
In May 2025, when they were not yet living together, Débora spoke with Para Ti about the possibility of marriage. At that time she acknowledged that marriage hadn’t been a particularly present dream in her life.
“I didn’t think about marriage until I met Esteban: now I can picture it,” she had said in that interview with Para Ti.
That phrase today takes on another dimension.
That “I can picture it” has transformed into a concrete project. After a story that began between cameras, poetry books, music, cafes and lots of laughter, Esteban Lamothe and Débora Nishimoto are preparing to say yes.
The wedding will be on December 4 and, according to a teaser from Lamothe, it will be a “small” celebration surrounded by their closest loved ones.
A love story that began almost by accident, when two actors met while working, ended up becoming something far bigger than the fiction that brought them together.
