Born in Vera Cruz, Mexico, she was a daughter of José Rafael Rubio, a Mexican journalist, and his wife, Dolores Alatorre. She was known to have been married three times, though some sources indicate one more husband, surname Scholtens.
Her first official husband, whom she married in 1935, was Count Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Herdringen, by whom she had one daughter, Countess Dolores von Fürstenberg-Herdringen (born in 1936, she married her stepbrother Patrick Guinness), and a son, Count Franz von Fürstenberg-Herdringen.
Her second husband was Ahmed Fakhri Bey (1921-1988), a grandson of King Fuad I of Egypt and a nephew of both Princess Fawzia of Egypt (the first wife of Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran) and King Farouk I of Egypt.
Her third husband, whom she married in 1951, was Group Capt. Thomas Loel Guinness, a Member of Parliament (died 1989) and an heir to the Guinness beer fortune. Of him, she famously told Noel Coward, " I could never sleep with Loel. He farts too much."
Gloria Guinness died in 1980 in Lausanne, Switzerland.