Letizia, Princess of Asturias

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HRH The Princess of Asturias
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HRH The Princess of Asturias
Spanish Royal Family

The Princess of Asturias Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, born September 15, 1972 in Oviedo, Spain) is the wife of Felipe, Prince of Asturias, the heir apparent to the Spanish throne. Before her marriage, she was an award-winning journalist and television presenter for CNN Plus and TVE.


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Early Life

She is the eldest daughter of Jesús Ortiz Álvarez and Paloma Rocasolano. Her parents divorced in 1998. Her father is a journalist. Letizia's mother is a nurse and union official. Letizia's paternal grandmother was a well known radio broadcaster in Asturias for over 40 years. Letizia has two sisters: Telma and Erika.

Education and career

The princess took classes in communications at the Complutense University of Madrid, and later received a master's degree in audiovisual journalism. Letizia spent some time in Mexico, working at the newspaper Siglo XXI. She later worked as a journalist in the daily newspaper La nueva España, ABC, the news agency EFE, and the television channels Bloomberg, CNN Plus and TVE.

In 2000 she 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.

In August 2003, Letizia was promoted to become an anchor person of the TVE daily news program Telediario-Noticias, a programme that is aired daily at 9pm CET.

First marriage

Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano on TVE
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Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano on TVE

She married Alonso Guerrero y Pérez, her high-school literature teacher, on 7 August 1999, at Almendralejo, in Badajoz. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 2000.

Second marriage

The wedding of Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano to the Prince of Asturias occurred on May 22, 2004. The wedding took place in the Cathedral Santa María la Real de la Almudena in Madrid, Spain, and was a royal first for 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 her previous marriage was a civil ceremony, the Roman Catholic Church did not object to her marrying the Prince of Asturias.

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 the Princess of Asturias 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 the Princess of Asturias was pregnant and on October 31st 2005, at 1:46am at the Ruber Clinic in Madrid, she gave birth to a girl, Leonor, the first child for couple.

It may be likely the Spanish law of succession could be changed to introduce cognatic 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.

See also


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