He had two sons with his wife, Lucy: Benny Paret Jr. and Alberto (born 1962).
He died in the early morning of April 3, 1962, at Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan from a massive brain hemorrhaging and a coma, which he sustained during a boxing match with Emile Griffith, on March 24, 1962 in Madison Square Garden.
Upon his untimely passing in 1962, he became the youngest (i.e. most recent born) world champion to die. Succeeding Marcel Cerdan though in 1970 that unenviable status passed to Carlos Teo Cruz.