Where Is Genelle Guzman Now?

For years after September 11, Genelle Guzman-McMillan was introduced by the same extraordinary description: the last person pulled alive from the World Trade Center rubble. It is an accurate distinction, but it also freezes her story at the most traumatic moment of her life. Genelle has now spent 25 years living the second chance she says she prayed for beneath the North Tower, building a family, continuing her career and repeatedly returning to her experience when she believes it can help someone else.

Lifetime’s Angel in the Rubble: The Genelle Guzman Story has placed her back in the national spotlight in 2026, this time with Sherri Shepherd portraying her.

Related: How Did Genelle Guzman Survive 27 Hours Under the World Trade Center Rubble?

Genelle Returned to Work After Her Recovery

Genelle was employed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey when the attacks occurred. Her office was on the 64th floor of the North Tower, and she had been working there only a relatively short time before September 11 changed her life.

Her injuries required extensive treatment. Genelle underwent multiple operations to save her crushed leg and faced a long rehabilitation before she could comfortably walk again. She eventually returned to working life rather than leaving the Port Authority behind permanently.

Current reporting in 2026 identifies Genelle as a supervisor at LaGuardia Airport. She has remained connected professionally to the Port Authority while also developing a separate role as a speaker whose 9/11 story takes her to schools, colleges, commemorations and other events.

That public role has never become a conventional entertainment career. Her talks generally revolve around survival, faith, gratitude and what she believes she was supposed to do with the life she was given after Ground Zero.

Genelle and Roger McMillan Are Still Together

One of the most important people in Genelle’s life after the rescue was Roger McMillan, who was her boyfriend when the attacks occurred. Roger had been desperately trying to understand whether Genelle had escaped the tower. He remained close throughout her hospitalization, and their relationship moved quickly toward marriage after her release. The couple married at New York City Hall in November 2001 while Genelle was still recovering. They later held a larger wedding celebration in Manhattan in 2002. More than two decades later, current reporting still identifies Genelle and Roger as married.

They built a blended family together. Genelle already had a daughter, Kimberly, and she and Roger later welcomed daughters Kaydi and Kellie. Rather than making Genelle’s survival story the center of their private life, the family has generally remained outside celebrity culture. Genelle currently lives with her family on Long Island.

Her Faith Became Central to Her Life After 9/11

The spiritual transformation shown in Angel in the Rubble is not something Lifetime created solely for dramatic effect.

Genelle has repeatedly said that, while trapped, she believed she was going to die and began reviewing the choices she had made in her life. She prayed for another chance and promised to return to God if she survived. Her rescue changed the way she approached faith afterward.

The mysterious figure she remembers as Paul became one of the defining elements of that belief. Although a firefighter named Paul Somin later emerged as someone who participated in the rescue operation, Genelle never felt that the later explanation fully accounted for the person she remembers holding her hand. She continues to describe Paul as her angel.

Her memoir, Angel in the Rubble: The Miraculous Rescue of 9/11’s Last Survivor, was published in 2011 and framed her experience through that spiritual transformation.

Genelle Still Speaks Publicly About September 11

Genelle has never completely separated herself from the anniversary of the attacks, even though returning to the memories can be difficult.

She has spoken over the years about survivor’s guilt, particularly when thinking about coworkers who did not make it out. Her friend Rosa Gonzalez, who had been descending the tower with her when it collapsed, remains an especially painful memory. Genelle has participated in commemorations and speaking events where she discusses the people she lost as much as her own rescue.

In 2025, she appeared at events including a 9/11 commemoration at Camden County College and later spoke to students and community members at Walsh University. Her message increasingly focuses on what comes after survival rather than simply recounting the physical details of being trapped. She describes her life as having purpose because she survived.

What Does Genelle Think About the Lifetime Movie?

The Lifetime adaptation brought Genelle’s story to television for the 25th anniversary of 9/11, with Sherri Shepherd taking on a role that required portraying both the physical terror of the collapse and the deeply personal religious experience that followed. Shepherd met Genelle while preparing for the film and has spoken about feeling a strong responsibility to honor her rather than simply imitate her.

The movie is based on Genelle’s memoir and emphasizes the same themes she has discussed publicly for decades: family, regret, prayer and the mysterious Paul. The production also gives Genelle’s story a new audience at a point when many viewers were either children in 2001 or were born after the attacks.

Genelle Guzman’s Life Is No Longer Defined Only by the Rubble

Genelle is still introduced as the final person rescued alive from Ground Zero because no later chapter can make that fact less extraordinary. But the 25 years since her rescue have produced a much fuller answer to where she is now.

She remained married to Roger, raised a family on Long Island, continued working and transformed her experience into a public testimony about faith and second chances. Her injuries did not disappear, nor did the memories of the coworkers she lost. What changed was the meaning she attached to surviving.

The Lifetime movie arrives at an appropriate point in that story. It recreates 27 hours that made Genelle famous, but the real Genelle Guzman-McMillan has spent a quarter-century showing what she decided to do with everything that came afterward.