After this child-oriented TV career, Martínez also played some characters in films of the mid-1980s, but is mainly known for being one of the earlier famous Spanish people to die as a victim of AIDS.
Martínez became a TV presenter after successful years as a teenage swimmer, winning a second prize in the championship of Castile.
As a consequence of these problems and some personal crises, Martínez became a heroin addict, and was diagnosed as being HIV-positive in 1990; she contracted HIV through intravenous drug use.
Some people, including the pop composer José María Cano, tried to help her with detoxification treatments, and Martínez played her last cinema role in 1994.
Her health was too damaged by HIV, and she died of AIDS-related complications on September 4, 1994, after becoming a target for gossip and sensationalist media, including the new TV networks that broke the TVE's monopoly in 1989–1990.