On Monday, September 15, a woman from Oviedo in the north of Spain will celebrate her 53rd birthday. Her name is Letizia Ortiz. Why should we care?
Well, because she’s the Queen of Spain.
The first thing to point out is that Spanish women don’t take their husband’s surname. When they marry, they keep their maiden names.
The second thing is, Letizia is a divorcee. She married a man in 1998, when she was 26. The marriage was disolved a year later. There was a time when having had a failed relationship was a disqualification for a queen (remember Wallis Simpson?) However, Europe’s royal families are moving with the times.
The average divorce rate in Europe is now one in 500 people, or more than half of all marriages, and Spain comes in at just about that figure. We all know, from our own experience, that divorce is a fact of life in today’s world.
Letizia Ortíz Rocasolano was born in Oviedo on 15 September, 1972. Trained as a journalist, she made the transition to television when she was young. In the 1990s, she became established as a national ‘face’, being the anchor of Spain’s version of CNN. She’s not just pretty – though no-one can deny her that – she has a Master’s Degree in tele-visual journalism.
Because Letizia is an asturiano, she was the ideal presenter to cover the Prestige disaster (in 2002, a ship sank off the coast of northern Spain, spilling thousands of gallons of crude oil into the sea: the resulting pollution devastated the Spanish tourism and fishing industries). And because she speaks fluent English, she was despatched to New York to report on the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers.
On 1 November 2003, the royal family announced that the Prince of Asturias (the Spanish equivalent of the Prince of Wales) was getting engaged. It was in 2004 that Letizia married Felipe Borbón, heir to the Spanish throne.
The wedding took place on 22 May, 2004. Scandal was avoided, because Letizia’s previous dabble with matrimony had been a civil affair, and the Catholic Church ruled that she was a ‘virgin’, and free to wed the future king.
Two daughters have emerged from the union: Leonor (soon to be 20, and heiress to the throne) and Sofia, two years younger.
Letizia embraced her royal duties immediately and with enthusiasm. Not wanting her to be seen as ‘arm candy’, a pretty wife following the prince around, the Palace gave her a programme of her own in 2006. She tends to appear on behalf of good causes, such as children’s rights, the elimination of diseases, and education in general.
On 19 June, 2014, Felipe succeeded his father to the throne, and Letizia became Queen of Spain. No other Spanish queen was ever born a ‘commoner’.
Whether it’s because the House of Borbón accepts that women are now equal, or because Letizia is media-savvy and good at being royal, she has been given more and more freedom to do international visits on her own.
What would royals be without a scandal?
In the spring of 2016, the Spanish press started accusing the queen of corruption, or something more. A banker named Javier López was being investigated for fraud, and Letizia sent him a text which said, “Kisses, yoga mate; miss you!” The newspapers had a field day.
Those who criticise the Spanish royal family (and they are many). Have labelled Letizia as a ‘bimbo’, saying that she wears a lot of nice, fashionable clothes and does little else. The case against her was strengthened in 2022 when she was diagnosed as suffering from “Morton’s Neuroma”, a bunching of the toes associated with excessive wearing of high heels.
But Letizia seems to have vanquished her detractors. On 3 November 2024, an embarrassing situation arose when the king and queen went to Valencia, to talk with politicians and local people about the recent floods. When the Valencian citizens got hostile and very vocal about ‘comfortable rich people’ who understood nothing, the elected representatives quickly melted away. Letizia stayed on, and listened to the people’s grievances. She got a lot of credit for that – and even more when, a month later, she went back to ask how the victims were coping.
Exploiter of media opportunities, or the intelligent face of royalty in the 21st century? Decide for yourself.
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