What the Hell Is Going on With Selena Quintanilla’s Family?
Since Selena Quintanilla‘s death in 1995, her family has worked together to honor and preserve her legacy. But now, to the surprise of many people in the music world, Abraham “A.B.” Quintanilla III, Selena’s older brother and producer, and Suzette Quintanilla-Arriaga, Selena’s sister, are in the middle of a legal dispute that has turned public.
Last week, A.B. took to Instagram to break his silence about a situation with his family, claiming that he’s been in a legal dispute with Quintanilla-Arriaga this summer. It has since developed into a back-and-forth with Quintanilla-Arriago and Selena’s mother, Marcella, after the pair issued their own statement a day later. Below, we trace what’s going on.
A.B. Quintanilla Speaks Out
On Sept. 1, A.B. Quintanilla claimed he received “numerous calls and inquiries … from various media outlets” and revealed that he is taking legal action against his sister. “There is a lawsuit related to Suzette Arriaga, as well as to facts and circumstances related to my father, Abraham Quintanilla,” A.B. wrote on Instagram. Selena’s father managed her estate until passing duties to Quintanilla-Arriaga in 2016. He died in December 2025.
A.B.’s post did not provide further details about lawsuit “out of respect for the legal process” but alluded to “years of accumulated situations, decisions, and circumstances” that involved “[his] own family.” He added: “There is years of history. There are facts. There is evidence. There are circumstances. And there is much that is still unknown.” A.B. ended his note with a pointed remark that seemed to take aim at the Quintanilla family. “I was never the type to wait for the paycheck from someone else’s hard work to come to my door,” A.B. wrote.
Marcella Quintanilla and Suzette Quintanilla-Arriaga Respond
A day later, Suzette Quintanilla-Arriaga and her mother, Marcella, issued their own statement via Instagram to “correct the record” and negate the existence of a lawsuit. “Suzette has never been served with any lawsuit. She has received no court-filed complaint, summons, petition, or other legal pleading concerning the allegations A.B. is describing,” the post read. They also claimed they were “unable to locate a publicly filed case” in available public records. Rolling Stone was also unable to locate a copy of a lawsuit regarding A.B. Quintanilla or Quintanilla-Arriaga.
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“There was no theft by Suzette,” the statement continued. “Any potential sale of an ownership interest in a company is entirely separate and should not be mischaracterized as the sale of Selena’s personal items.” It’s the first mention of ownership interest, which seems to be the issue at hand here, according to documents shared by A.B. in his latest post.
“We have no interest in attacking A.B, humiliating him, or litigating decades of family history through social media,” the statement read, emphasizing the familial love they hold for A.B. “But loving someone does not require us to accept false accusations.”
A.B. Doubles Down
That same day, on Sept. 2, A.B. issued another statement on Instagram, which began with capital letters in red front that read “I don’t lie.” In his new statement, A.B. claimed that, “Suzette and her lawyers” were “notified of a lawsuit related to her fiduciary duties” and that his sister responded to the “corresponding documents via certified mail and electronic mail.”
In the post, he also included a redacted version of the letter sent to Michael A. Trauben, an attorney from Singh, Singh & Trauben, LLP. The visible portion of the letter, which is dated Aug. 26, 2025, references “AB Quintanilla (‘AB’)/Estate of Selena Quintanilla Perez (the ‘Estate’)” and mentions a July 23, 2025 email which “lays bare Suzette Quintanilla’s utter disregard for her fiduciary duties to the Estate’s beneficiaries.”
The redacted letter appears to be a cease and desist that accuses Quintanilla-Arriaga of barring estate beneficiaries, including A.B., from “inspecting” financial books and records. A.B.’s legal representatives declined to comment when reached by Rolling Stone. A.B. ended his statement with the following: “This Friday my lawyer will speaks out and many things will be made clear.”
A.B.’s Lawyer Shares Statement
On Saturday, Sept. 5, Jeff Lehrman, A.B.’s attorney, shared a statement via a video on his client’s Instagram page “to clarify some issues that have come up recently related to the litigation.” Lehrman made it clear that a lawsuit had not be filed but was “soon to be.” The attorney also clarified that the legal dispute began last year, when A.B. served Quintanilla-Arriaga with “several demand letters” pertaining to “an accounting of the [Selena] estate” and “a demand for payments for my client as a beneficiary of the estate of Selena for income and distributions that he has not received.” According to Lehrman, “Suzette has refused to comply with that request that was made of her.”
Lehrman continued by saying that “there is going to be litigation related to this matter, and there is going to be a lawsuit that is filed” in Nueces County, Texas since he claims that Quintanilla-Arriaga “ignored” the demand letters and, instead, “issued her own self-serving response.” The attorney went onto detail some aspects of the lawsuit, which “will be against the estate” and seek “uncover quite a bit of fiduciary breaches of fiduciary duty by Suzette, where she has either failed to properly account or failed to properly distribute assets of the estate.”
Lehrman also used the statement as an opportunity to highlight A.B. as a “very well-known musician in his own right,” and as the producer and songwriter behind some of Selena’s iconic hits. “Unfortunately, he has not gotten credit for that financially, and has not received what he should as a result of his contributions,” Lehrman said. He added, “He’s also a beneficiary of the estate, and and so regardless of his role as a producer, he’s entitled to income.”
Additional reporting by: Nancy Dillon.