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Queen Letizia of Spain

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Queen Letizia of Spain

Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano (pronounced [leˈtiθja oɾˈtiθ rokasoˈlano]; born 15 September 1972) is Queen of Spain as the wife of King Felipe VI.

Letizia was born in Oviedo, Asturias. She worked as a journalist for ABC and EFE before becoming a news anchor at CNN+ and Televisión Española. In 1998, she married writer Alonso Guerrero Pérez; they divorced the following year. In 2004, Letizia married Felipe, then Prince of Asturias as the son and heir apparent of King Juan Carlos I. The couple have two daughters, Leonor and Sofía. As Princess of Asturias, Letizia represented her father-in-law in Spain and abroad. On Juan Carlos's abdication in June 2014, Felipe became king, making Letizia queen consort.

As the consort of the ruling monarch, Letizia has no constitutional functions of her own and it is constitutionally prohibited for her to assume any, unless she assumes the role of regent. The Queen performs public commitments representing the Crown, often with her husband, but she is focused on being the patron, president or member of numerous charities and organizations, and she is the visible face of the Spanish international cooperation, often traveling around the world supervising and promoting it.

Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano was born on 15 September 1972 at Miñor Sanatorium in Oviedo, Asturias, the eldest daughter of Jesús José Ortiz Álvarez, a journalist, and his first wife, María de la Paloma Rocasolano Rodríguez, a chief registered nurse and hospital union representative with a bachelor's degree in art history. She has two younger sisters, Telma (born 1973) and Érika (1975–2007). Érika died by suicide via intentional drug overdose while Letizia was pregnant with her second child.

Ortiz's parents divorced in 1999 and her father remarried in Madrid on 18 March 2004 to fellow journalist Ana Togores.

Ortiz's paternal grandparents were José Luis Ortiz Velasco (1923–2005), a commercial employee at Olivetti, and María del Carmen "Menchu" Álvarez del Valle (1928–2021), a radio broadcaster in Asturias for over 40 years. Her maternal grandfather was Francisco Julio Rocasolano Camacho (1918–2015), a mechanic and cab driver in Madrid for over 20 years who was of French and Occitan origin. Her maternal grandmother, Enriqueta Rodríguez Figueredo (1919–2008), was a Filipina of Spanish descent.

Several studies have been conducted to try to determine the queen's family genealogy. British genealogists have provided evidence that through her mother's Rocasolano lineage, Ortiz descends from Astorg Roquesoulane, a 16th-century woman who died in 1564, and her coat of arms incorporates the arms of the Rocasolano family. A French genealogist found evidence that through her mother's Rocasolano lineage, Ortiz is a 9th cousin of French singer and actress Anny Flore. Other reports have suggested, and remain unproven, that on her paternal grandfather's side, she is a descendant of an untitled family descended from medieval nobility who served as constables of Castile.

Ortiz attended La Gesta School in Oviedo, before her family moved to Rivas-Vaciamadrid near Madrid, where she attended the Ramiro de Maeztu High School. She completed a bachelor's degree in journalism, at the Complutense University of Madrid, as well as a master's degree in audiovisual journalism at the Institute for Studies in Audiovisual Journalism.

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