Cristina Maria Saralegui was born to Francisco Rene Saralegui, Jr., and his wife, Cristina Santamarina. In 1960, following the Cuban Revolution, Saralegui and her family fled to Miami and settled in Key Biscayne.

After graduating from the Academy of the Assumption in 1966, Saralegui enrolled at the University of Miami. In 1973, she began an internship at the magazine Vanidades. This allowed her to improve her written Spanish to the level of her spoken language. By 1979, Saralegui was editor of the Spanish version of Cosmopolitan magazine. She continued in this role through most of the 1980s.