Iñaki Urdangarin, the former Duke of Palma, has achieved a reconciliation with his youngest daughter, Irene Urdangarin y de Borbón, 18, after spending a few months estranged due to discrepancies arising from the mediatic divorce process of the ex-sportsman with the Infanta Cristina.
As the Spanish website Monarquía Confidencial has learned from sources close to the Infanta’s entourage, Irene has come closer to her father, with whom she had some tension due to the situation their family has been going through since the Nóos scandal broke and, more recently, the arrival of Ainhoa Armentia.
Iñaki Urdangarin and his daughter Irene reconciliation
The sources above explain that Urdangarin would have done everything possible to “recover” the relationship he had with Irene, seeking his rapprochement from respect towards the personal decision of the 17-year-old teenager.
“Both have had a hard time. Irene is still a teenager who has seen her mother have a hard time, and also her father, especially when he was in prison,” they point out.
Although bureaucratic aspects are still pending for the signing of the divorce between the ex-sportsman and Cristina de Borbón, Urdangarin has been able to celebrate his 56th birthday, on January 15, more relaxed with respect to previous years in terms of the relationship with his children, especially with Irene.
“Now is a new stage in the life of both of them. Irene is trying to understand that the marital relationship with her father must be different from her relationship as a daughter,” the sources added.
Irene, who has an extraordinary relationship with her three male siblings, spent Christmas with her mother and her paternal grandmother, Doña Sofía, before traveling to Vitoria to celebrate the New Year with the rest of the Urdangarin clan.
According to what has transpired, the teenager has not yet approached her father’s current partner, Ainhoa Armentia, with whom she does not want to maintain a relationship for the time being.
The divorce of Iñaki Urdangarin and Infanta Cristina is expected to be signed before the end of January, in a tense final stretch due to the economic situation of the former athlete, unable at the moment to finance the university studies of his youngest daughter.