When Letizia Ortiz agreed to marry Felipe de Borbón, she didn’t just join the Spanish royal family. She also had to go through something much less romantic: signing a tough prenuptial agreement.
We’re talking about a very restrictive document, with specific clauses covering divorce, death, potential remarriages, and children.
Spanish monarchist Pilar Eyre describes it this way on her blog, Lecturas. The most disturbing part is that, after she signed it, the lawyers tried to console her by saying that if they separated, she would be “better off than Lady Di.” What a consolation, right?
Letizia’s arrival at the Royal Household was a seismic event. It was the first time a Spanish prince had married a commoner, a divorced woman, and a journalist.
King Juan Carlos I was not pleased that his son chose to marry for love. Before the wedding, CESID thoroughly investigated the future princess, and the Royal Household launched a fierce censorship operation.
They confiscated cameras from photographers, pressured friends and colleagues to remain silent, and ordered that the relationship only appear in news reports, never in tabloid programs.
According to Eyre, the initial reports about her were “cringeworthy” because they only reflected what Zarzuela wanted to share.
The exact content of that contract is a state secret, so we will probably never know all the details. But the truth is, Letizia signed, married on May 22, 2004, in the rain at Almudena, and since then, she and Felipe have formed a solid couple.
They welcomed Leonor in 2005 and Sofia in 2007, and have since become a strong team both personally and institutionally.
They have weathered the scandals involving the King Emeritus and the attacks Juan Carlos himself launched in his book ‘Reconciliation,’ in which he blames Letizia for distancing Felipe from his family and childhood friends.
He claims he always kept his door open for her, but she never came. Over twenty years after that contract, Letizia is still there. And she has clearly shown that she didn’t need anyone’s approval to stay.