Prince Felipe marries Letizia Ortiz

The Spanish crown prince marries TV news presenter

On 1st November 2003 the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid announced the engagement of Spain's most eligible bachelor, Prince Felipe de Borbón y Grecia, 35, and Letizia Ortiz, 31. The wedding took place at 11am Madrid time on 22nd May at Nuestra Seńora de La Almudena cathedral.

Prince Felipe is the son of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía and heir to the Spanish throne.

More on the wedding itself is on a separate page.

Letizia Ortiz had been a regular weekday news anchor for the Spanish news programme Telediario-2 on Spanish TV channel TVE1 since September 2003. The programme is aired daily at 9pm Spanish time. A senior manager of the TVE news department said he had introduced the couple.

In 2000 Letizia reported from Washington on the presidential elections. In September 2001 she broadcast live from Ground Zero in New York after the 911 atrocities and in 2003 she filed reports from post-war Iraq.

In 2002 she sent several reports from Galicia in northern Spain following the ecological disaster when an oil tanker, the Prestige, sank spilling most of its cargo and devastating the fishing grounds and the local coastline.

Letizia married Alonso Guerrero, a literature teacher, in 1999. The marriage lasted little more than a year.

Felipe's official title as crown prince is Príncipe de Asturias ie Prince of Asturias, a region in northern Spain. Letizia was born in Oviedo which is in Asturias - so it is particularly appropriate now that she is called Princess Letizia of Asturias.

Before the wedding Letizia was given the official status of fiancée of Prince Felipe and was called dońa Letizia by many people in Spain. She accompanied Felipe on some official duties and was given royal security protection.

The Spanish media seemed unaware of the romance between Prince Felipe and Letizia. They could only find one picture of them together - of Letizia being presented to Felipe in a line-up of TVE staffers at the Premios Príncipe de Asturias ceremony which had just taken place in Oviedo.

Even Letizia's father was surprised by the news. "She suddenly told me recently that she had met someone," he said. "Then she said it was getting serious and now this!"

Letizia's parents are Jesus Ortiz and Paloma Rocasolano. Her sisters are called Telma and Erica.

A month before the announcement of the engagement, Letizia had been showing some old friends from her university days around the TV studios at Torrespaña, just before presenting the news.

She confided to them: "I'm going out with a guy at the moment - and if everything goes well, we'll get married."

One of the friends replied: "Well, if you get married and I don't find out about it I hope you're very happy."

Letizia replied: "Don't worry. You'll find out."

In her final news broadcast just hours before the announcement, Letizia signed off by wishing the viewers a happy weekend and informed them when the next news programme would be shown.

The couple appeared before the press on 6th November. They were asked how many children they would have. Felipe predicted: "More than two and less than five."

Letizia looked a bit surprised at that and said - in Spanish: “ˇAnda!”

At another point Felipe interrupted Letizia as she was answering a question. Letizia then immediately interrupted him saying: "Let me finish!"

Spain had difficulty in the twentieth century deciding whether it was a republic or a monarchy. General Franco became head of state after a civil war and sent King Alfonso XIII into exile in 1939. Franco stayed in power until he died, but he had arranged that Alfonso's grandson, now King Juan carlos, would succeed him as head of state even though Alfonso's son, Juan de Borbón, was still alive.

King Juan Carlos became head of state in 1975 with all the powers of a dictator. He quickly moved to shed those powers and became a constitutional monarch, playing a key role in the rapid democratisation of Spain.

In 1981 Lt-Col Antonio Tejero and civil guard colleagues stormed the parliament building, firing his gun into the ceiling. In what was intended to be the start of a coup attempt he took the prime minister, members of the government and other parliament members hostage. King Juan Carlos appeared on national TV later in the evening in full army uniform and the plot then collapsed. He is now a popular and respected king.