Spain’s Queen Letizia turned 50 on Thursday.
It’s only a birthday but Spain is taking the opportunity to assess its scarred monarchy and ponder how the arrival of a middle-class commoner may help shake up one of Europe’s most storied royal dynasties into a modern and more palatable institution.
Divorced and a seasoned national television journalist, Letizia Ortíz became princess on marrying then Prince Felipe — now King Felipe VI — in 2004. When King Juan Carlos abdicated 10 years later, she became the first woman without blue blood to reach the throne of Spain.
After initially been questioned by many, these days the media is full of articles and books abound about her, with most giving her the thumbs-up approval.
On Thursday, daily El Mundo ran a front-page headline, “Queen Letizia’s Revolution to Modernize the Crown” with its royal correspondent writing, “She turns 50 in a sweet moment. Even the less pro-monarchy media praise her and exalt her as the savior of the monarchy.”
But Letizia has had to battle to get there.
From the beginning of her royal life, the spotlight has been on her. Alongside possibly Penélope Cruz, no other woman in Spain is more talked about, whether it be about how she looks and dresses, her commitment to social causes or any perceived transgression from tradition.
“Letizia has always been talked about since she arrived in the monarchy because she is such an interesting and complex person who eclipses all others, including the King Emeritus Juan Carlos, when he was king,” said Alberto Lardiés, journalist and author of several books on the Spanish royals.
Letizia became queen consort at a time when the Spanish monarchy was on a downward roll following successive scandals involving Juan Carlos and her brother-in-law, Inaki Urdangarín.
She is known not to have had an easy time fitting in. Juan Carlos is known to have had little time for her because of her background. Letizia soon also distanced herself from Sofía, her predecessor and a model of conformity, as well as many of the rest of the what has always been known as a very conservative family.
In one of the most commented-on occasions, Letizia, now queen, was seen having words and stepping in the way to prevent Sofía, from posing with Letizia’s children at Palma de Mallorca cathedral in 2018. The reason why wasn’t clear, but her insistence was.
One of the rare moments when she talked about herself candidly since becoming queen occurred when she revisited her alma mater, Madrid’s Complutense University, for the 50th anniversary of the journalism faculty last year.
In a speech, she recounted how once one of her professors, a bit fed up with her, interrupted a class shouting, “Ortíz, look, I obviously don’t know what is going to come of your life, but when it comes to being annoying, you have no rival.”
