King Felipe and Queen Letizia will be married for 19 years on May 22. Although the couple is the most solid of the Spanish royal family, it has not always been so.
The house of the Bourbons was on the verge of being left without a queen because of the crisis that broke out in the royal family. The problems between Felipe and the expert journalist almost ended in divorce.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia’s divorce
Although it seemed that everything was going well between them, in 2013 the couple was on the verge of announcing their separation. The current queen was never loved in Zarzuela and that influenced a lot in the crisis.
Pilar Eyre, an expert on Spanish royalty, explained in a video posted on her Youtube channel that “Letizia has had to clench her fists and give in because she saw, not only the danger to the monarchy, but her own marriage.”
The expert points out that that 2013 was the most difficult for the then Princess of Asturias.
“That year was the strongest crisis. Maybe there were other stronger ones, but they carried them in privacy, but we all found out about this one. At that time, Letizia was very thin, tense and with a very bad face. She came to Barcelona a lot, a bit fleeing from Madrid. She had a group of friends with whom she felt very comfortable and protected,” says Pilar Eyre.
That summer the queen did not travel to Marivent as she always did with Felipe. In addition, Letizia was seen in Barcelona with her friends. There was talk of divorce, and the announcement was expected at any moment.
However, when she was about to make the final decision, the Royal House reminded her that if she took that step she could lose her daughters, since they would stay in the palace with Felipe.
“Apparently, this I have not been able to verify, someone reminded Letizia that she had signed a prenuptial contract by which the future children would stay with the father in case of separation” says Eyre.
She assures that other promises could have been made to the queen so that she would not divorce.
The expert points out that one of the promises would have been that the then King Juan Carlos I would abdicate, something that happened the following year. It has been widely commented in the Spanish press that the monarch never approved of his son’s marriage to the expert journalist.