Letizia, Princess of Asturias
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Her Royal Highness The Princess of Asturias, (Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano), born September 15, 1972), 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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Birth and family
She was born in Oviedo, the capital of Asturias province, and is the eldest of three daughters. Her parents divorced when she was young. Her father, Jesús Ortiz Álvarez, is the founder of the television channel Antena 3. Her mother, Paloma Rocasolano, is a nurse and union official. Her paternal grandmother was a well-known radio broadcaster.
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.
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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
She married Alonso Guerrero y Pérez, her high-school literature teacher, in 1998, at Almendralejo, in Badajoz. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 2002.
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 has 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
Since the royal wedding, photographs have been published that show that the Princess of Asturias has become alarming 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.
Pregnancy
The announcement on May 8 2005 that the Princess of Asturias is pregnant came two weeks before Felipe and Letizia celebrate their first wedding anniversary. She is expected to give birth to the baby in November 2005. If the baby is a girl, then it is 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. However, it is likely that this would not be done retroactively, meaning that Infanta Elena would not displace Felipe in the line of succession.
See also
de:Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano es:Letizia Ortiz it:Letizia Ortiz nl:Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano pl:Letizia (księżna Asturii)