Queen Letizia of Spain
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Princess Letizia of Spain, born Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, on September 15, 1972 in Oviedo, Spain, is the wife of Prince Felipe, Prince of Asturias, the heir apparent to the Spanish throne. She is styled HRH The Princess of Asturias.
Family
Letizia is the eldest daughter of Jesús Ortiz Álvarez, a journalist, and Paloma Rocasolano Rodríguez, a registered nurse and also a hospital union representative[1]. Her parents divorced in 1987 and her father remarried fellow journalist Ana Togores [2]. Letizia's paternal grandmother, Menchu Álvarez del Valle, was a well known radio broadcaster in Asturias for over 40 years.
Princess Letizia has two sisters:
- Telma Ortiz Rocasolano, an economist who works for Médicos sin Fronteras.[3]
- Erika Ortiz Rocasolano, who graduated in Fine arts and works as a deluxe books representative. She has recently separated from her boyfriend, Antonio Vigo, with whom she has a daughter. [4] [5]
Education and career
Princess Letizia attended school at the La Gesta school in Oviedo, before her family moved to Madrid, where she attended high school at the Ramiro de Maeztu high school.[6]. She completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism at the Complutense University of Madrid, as well as a Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Journalism at the Institute for Studies in Audiovisual Journalism. [7].
During her studies, Letizia worked for Asturian daily newspaper La Nueva España and later for the newspaper ABC and the news agency EFE[6] [7]. After completing her studies, she spent some time in Mexico, working at the newspaper Siglo XXI. After returning to Spain, she worked for the Spanish version of economic channel Bloomberg before moving to news network CNN Plus.[7]
In 2000, she moved to and TVE, where she started working for the news channel 24 Horas. In 2002, she anchored the weekly news report program Informe Semanal and later the daily morning news program Telediario Matinal on the TVE [6] [7]. In August 2003, a few months before her engagement to Felipe, Letizia was promoted to anchor the TVE daily evening news program Telediario, the most viewed newscast in Spain.
In 2000 Letizia reported from Washington, DC on the presidential elections. In September 2001 she broadcast live from Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks in New York and in 2003 she filed reports from Iraq following the war. In 2002 she sent several reports from Galicia in northern Spain following the ecological disaster when the oil tanker Prestige sank.
First marriage
Letizia married Alonso Guerrero y Pérez, her high-school literature teacher, on August 7 1999, at Almendralejo, in Badajoz, after a 10-year courtship [8]. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 2000.
Second marriage
On 1st November 2003, to the surprise of many, the Royal Household announced Letizia's engagement to the Prince of Asturias[7]. Afterwards, she moved to live in a wing of the La Zarzuela Palace until the day of her wedding.[9]
The wedding took place on May 22, 2004 in the Cathedral Santa María la Real de la Almudena in Madrid, Spain. It was the first royal wedding in this cathedral, which was consecrated by the Pope in 1993. It had been nearly a century since the capital celebrated a royal wedding, as the present king and queen married in Athens, and the prince's sisters, Infanta Elena and Infanta Cristina, married in Seville and Barcelona respectively.
As Letizia's previous marriage was a civil ceremony, the Roman Catholic Church did not object to her marrying the Prince of Asturias.
After the wedding, she moved with her new husband to his residence, a 3.150 m² palace built within the La Zarzuela Palace grounds.[10]
Health concerns
| Styles of The Princess of Asturias | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | Her Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
Since the royal wedding, photographs have been published that show that Letizia has become alarmingly thin. Gala magazine published photographs of the princess in March 2005 showing the elegantly dressed royal exhibiting frail arms, sharp shoulder blades, and sunken cheeks, an indication, observers stated, perhaps of anorexia. In an unusual move, representatives of the Spanish court denied that the princess was suffering from any illness.
Children
It was announced on May 8 2005 that Letizia was pregnant and on October 31 2005, at 1:46am at the Ruber Clinic in Madrid, she gave birth to a girl, H.R.H. Infanta Leonor, the first child for the couple, who was baptised on January 14 2006. The godparents were the King and Queen of Spain.
It may be likely the Spanish law of succession could be changed to introduce the fully equal primogeniture, meaning that the firstborn child of the monarch succeeds, regardless of gender, making Infanta Leonor second in line behind her father even if she has younger brothers, and would become a female heir apparent.
As for the infanta's future as a possible monarch, Letizia was quoted in the Spanish Herald, when asked by a reporter if "a queen has [been] born," the prince answered, "For now a princess has born. But the logic of the times means that if the reform that the administration is planning takes place, she will be."
On September 25, 2006, the Royal House announced that the couple is expecting their second child in May 2007. [11]
Titles, Styles, Honours & Arms
- Miss Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano (September 1972 - May 2004)
- Her Royal Highness The Princess of Asturias (Since May 2004)
Her official titles are Her Royal Highness Letizia, Princess of Asturias, Princess of Gerona, Princess of Viana, Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer.
The coat of arms of Princess Letizia impales her husband's main coat of arms to the dexter (viewer's left) except the label with her family arms -1st and 4th quarters, the arms of her father Jesus Ortiz; 2nd and 3rd quarters, the arms of her maternal grandfather Francisco Rocasolano- The whole differenced by the Prince of Asturias’s label of three points Azure; all surmounted by Prince of Asturias’s crown as heir-apparent and surrounded by the badge of the Order of Charles III. The Princess's coat of arms has no official status, it is for heraldic (personal) use. In Spain only the coats of arms of the King and the Prince of Asturias are official.[12]
Trivia
In 2006, Princess Letizia received some unfortunate attention when a gust of wind blew her skirt up around her waist while greeting a crowd atop the Juan Luis Galiardo Theater. The embarrassing moment was widely circulated through European news outlets as well as the blogosphere, and according to Google, caused a significant increase in internet searches for "Letizia". [13].
References
- ^ DiariodeNavarra.es - Paloma Rocasolano, enlace sindical
- ^ DiariodeNavarra.es - Jesús Ortiz, el discreto consuegro del Rey
- ^ DiariodeNavarra.es - Telma Ortiz Rocasolano
- ^ DiariodeNavarra.es - Erika Ortiz Rocasolano
- ^ A la hermanísima, Erika Ortiz, no le gusta que le digan dónde sentarse
- ^ a b c d e The Royal Household of His Majesty the King - Her Royal Highness the Princess of Asturias
- ^ DiariodeNavarra.es - Prefiere los pantalones a la falda
- ^ elmundo.es | Boda Real - Palacio de la Zarzuela
- ^ elmundo.es | Boda Real - Su casa
- ^ Anuncio del próximo nacimiento del segundo hijo de SS.AA.RR. los Príncipes de Asturias
- ^ lne.es | Coat of arms of the Princess Letizia's desciption. (In Spanish)
- ^ Google search trends - Letizia