It has been nine years since Letizia Ortiz became Queen of Spain through the ascension of her husband, the son of King Juan Carlos I. Before meeting her husband Felipe VI, the pretty brunette seemed destined for another life far away from worldliness and royal protocol.
Letizia Ortiz was born on September 15, 1972 in Oviedo. She is the daughter of a journalist named Jesús José Ortiz Álvarez and a nurse named María Paloma Rocasolano Rodríguez. After passing the equivalent of the baccalaureate in Spain, she enrolled at the Complutense University where she took a degree in information sciences. Between 1992 and 1993, she did an internship as a scholarship holder for the newspaper La Nuevas España in Oviedo before obtaining her master’s degree in audiovisual information. On the strength of her success, in 2000 she was awarded the Mariano José de Larra prize by the Madrid Press Association as the best journalist under 30 years of age.
Along with her flourishing career, Letizia Ortiz falls under the spell of Alonso Guerrero, a professor of literature. The lovebirds say “yes” to each other on August 7, 1998 before divorcing a year later. Three years after her divorce, the journalist, who covered the events of September 11 on public television, met Felipe, then Prince of Asturias.
A secret relationship will emerge before the Royal House officially announces their engagement on November 1, 2003. The following year, Letizia Ortiz marries her companion in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid. After the abdication of King Juan Carlos I, Letizia Ortiz became queen consort of Spain on June 19, 2014.
Over the course of her new royal life, Letizia Ortiz has gradually metamorphosed, so that some Internet users do not hesitate to talk about cosmetic surgery or botox injection. “As a Spaniard, I do not feel represented by a woman who seems to be obsessed with botox and surgery” or “Oops, Queen Letizia was the victim of a bad cosmetic operation”, can we read on Twitter.
Discover in our slideshow the photos of Letizia before her marriage to Prince Felipe VI.
