Engagement of Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz: November 1, 2003

[An Ard Ri]

Tenth anniversary of the engagement of the Prince of Asturias and Letizia Ortiz!

Se cumplen diez años del compromiso de boda de los Príncipes de Asturias | Realeza | Noticias hola.com

 

[An Ard Ri]

From Hola

Diez años del compromiso de Doña Letizia

 

[IloveCP]

Gifs of their engagement:

royal sass

 

[Blog Real]

Announcement of the commitment between the Prince of Asturias and Letizia Ortiz:

 

[Blog Real]

Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz's Hand Request / Engagement Interview.



On Hola's website
https://www.hola.com/bodaprincipe/lapedida/

TVE report on the engagement of Felipe and Letizia.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

"Déjame terminar" at 4 min, the most well remembered words of Letizia.

 

[Blog Real]

NOVEMBER 3, 2003
Two days after the official announcement of his engagement, Don Felipe and his girlfriend Letizia Ortiz have chosen the Prince's Residence, within the framework of the Zarzuela Palace, to make their first presentation to the media.
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NOVEMBER 6, 2003
Among thousands of flashes, in the framework of the El Pardo palace, the formal ceremony of the request for the hand of the Prince of Asturias, and future King of Spain, to his fiancee, Mrs. Letizia Ortiz.
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[Mbruno]

Up to this day, I am still surprised that Felipe was allowed to marry Letizia Ortiz, not only because she would be the first non-royal Spanish queen consort ever (I think), but also mostly because she was divorced and from a modest family.



I came across some articles from the time and it is interesting that royal "experts" were still discussing for example if Carlos III's Pragmatic Sanction still applied to members of the Spanish Royal Family and whether Felipe, or, for that matter, his sisters too had all been disqualified from succeeding to the throne for marrying unequally. Most scholars argued that the Pragmatic Sanction had been implicitly repealed by the constitution of 1978, but actually that was not entirely clear.

 

[Blog Real]

Engagement of Felipe, Prince of Asturias and Letizia Ortiz in the Spanish press

¡Hola!
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Diez Minutos
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Semana
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Pronto
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Qué me Dices!
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TP
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ABC
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El Pais
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El Mundo
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Tiempo
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[MARG]

Wow, she really looks wonderful in those photos. She is warm and quite lovely, relaxed, confident, elegant and self-possessed. In short, a perfect candidate for a crown princess. Interestingly, that open and easy look and style seems to have totally disappeared.

 

[HRHTalDuchess]

I remember this like yesterday. Completely taken by surprise but so happy that Felipe was marrying the woman he loved.

 

[Lady Daly]

Wow, she really looks wonderful in those photos. She is warm and quite lovely, relaxed, confident, elegant and self-possessed. In short, a perfect candidate for a crown princess. Interestingly, that open and easy look and style seems to have totally disappeared.

Twenty years ago Letizia was obviously much younger, naive to the reality of what lay ahead and she was in love. Just the stress of living through the family's corruption scandals, raising two daughters and now wife of the King has not been easy. Letizia is still beautiful just more reserved and much wiser.

 

[muriel]

Interestingly, that open and easy look and style seems to have totally disappeared.

Might that be as a result of now being HM Queen Letizia, as opposed to the popular news presenter. Her role now requires a degree of reserve and distance, whilst still appearing approachable.

 

[Alisa]

Wow, she really looks wonderful in those photos. She is warm and quite lovely, relaxed, confident, elegant and self-possessed. In short, a perfect candidate for a crown princess. Interestingly, that open and easy look and style seems to have totally disappeared.

I think the more serious or "hardened" appearance has to do with the cosmetic procedures she has had over the years. Prior to them her face appeared to be alot "softer" and more warm.

That being said, I do disagree in regards to her warmth, confidence, and approachability. I think that has only increased each year she has been married. She is certainly more engaged and interacts with the public and press easily as time goes by.

See for example:

soy_letizia on Instagram: "? Reina Letizia muestra cada vez más su naturalidad y cercanía a toda la gente. Y nos confirma que esta Reina nos encanta ? Y a ti, ¿qué te parece?"

28K likes, 911 comments - soy_letizia on April 15, 2023: "? Reina Letizia muestra cada vez más su naturalidad y cercanía a toda la gente. Y nos confi..."

www.instagram.com

 

[AnaC]

Letizia was absolutely crushed by the press for her easy and open manner in the engagement interview and the family welcome wasn't much better. When she was pregnant with her second child she was accused in TV and a national newspaper of being responsible for the death of her sister. In this same thread Mbruno wrote in 2021 that he's still surprised Felipe was "allowed" to marry Letizia due to her background. Through the years she learnt how to close herself off to the press attacks and has become incredibly self-possesed. I really like a profile El País (Spain's most important newspaper) did on Letizia for her 50th birthday. In It they call her 20 years in the RF a manual of endurance, how she reached the bottom in 2007 after 2 difficult pregnancies including C-section and the death of her sister. Only after this was she allowed a secretary and an agenda and how nowdays she's strict with her physical exercise, diet and mental health regime and how she works hard so that other people’s opinions do not weigh as much on her state of mind.

She's a different person in public and in private, she's a magnificent public speaker (warm, engaged, thinking on her feet and a profesional communicator) and that's always lost in this forum because 90% of her speeches are in Spanish.

Her tribute to a TVE news programme a few weeks ago went viral on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1642247005421412352

From a 2014 profile on Queen Letizia in Newsweek on her public persona vs herself:

A bank of photo*graphers jostle for a better angle and are shoved back by security, keen to give the queen some space. Letizia is reserved in the bustle, conversing sedately with the students, asking questions and nodding her head. But as soon as security herds snappers out of the room she visibly relaxes. Her tiny shoulders lower and she laughs, sharing jokes in perfect English with Malikian who has come to join the crowd. She poses for school pictures and even a for couple of selfies with the young music students, hugging them and laughing freely. Spotting one lone reporter standing on the sidelines she does something royals almost never do. She comes over and introduces herself with a bright-eyed gaze and a bone-crushing handshake.

 

[HRHTalDuchess]

Correct, I preferred Q Letizia's natural look. It's obvious work was done on her nose which was totally unnecessary. Whoever convinced her to have that procedure was very wrong.

I think the more serious or "hardened" appearance has to do with the cosmetic procedures she has had over the years. Prior to them her face appeared to be alot "softer" and more warm.

That being said, I do disagree in regards to her warmth, confidence, and approachability. I think that has only increased each year she has been married. She is certainly more engaged and interacts with the public and press easily as time goes by.

See for example:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrDEJSyINEA/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

[Stefan]

I always found it a pity that Letizia never gave an exclusive Interview or a documentary was made (like in Denmark with the soon-to-be CP Mary) so that the spanish people got to know her a bit better.

As far as i remember, the critic after the engagement was not so much because of what she said, but more because of the one sentence "Let me finish" toward Felipe.

 

[HRHTalDuchess]

I think the Spanish press and the aristocracy worked overtime to smear Q Letizia's image. Both groups were both shocked that Felipe chose a commoner. The aristocracy wanted Felipe to marry either another European princess or one of their daughters. And that she was a divorcee was also an issue for many in those circles. I'm happy that Letizia has endured all that has been thrown at her.

 

[Blog Real]

I always found it a pity that Letizia never gave an exclusive Interview or a documentary was made (like in Denmark with the soon-to-be CP Mary) so that the spanish people got to know her a bit better.

As far as i remember, the critic after the engagement was not so much because of what she said, but more because of the one sentence "Let me finish" toward Felipe.

I also think that Letizia should have given an interview after the engagement announcement or made a documentary like Mary did. It would have been nice for us to get to know her better.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

I also think that Letizia should have given an interview after the engagement announcement or made a documentary like Mary did. It would have been nice for us to get to know her better.

Obviously, there was the fear that Letizia would overshadow Felipe what would not have been difficult as he does not have a 'folksy' personality like his father. After the 'let me finish' comment, the SRF shut Letizia down, for many years.
Letizia was completely naive and had no idea what she was getting into, even in the engagement interview she still stated that she only wanted to leave her job slowly, not immediately, only a few day later she was gone.
Unfortunately this interview destroyed a lot as Letizia came across as quite bossy and overconfident, possibly her true personality, but a desaster for royal life. It was said that she only met the King and Queen once or twice before because the engagement was 'enforced' by Felipe to protect his future wife, nobody seems to have spoken to or advised her what to say or not to say. It all seemed rushed and ill prepared.
Felipe obviously could not or would not protect his wife from what was coming/his family, the dynamics must have been terrible.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

I also think that Letizia should have given an interview after the engagement announcement or made a documentary like Mary did. It would have been nice for us to get to know her better.

Heu... Letizia Ortiz came into Spain's living rooms, e-ve-ry evening, to tell the news of the day. By hindsight still the most unlikely candidate ever to marry a future King of Spain. It shows that all "matching lists" ("Christian with Alexia", "Leonor with Gabriel") can directly go to the dustbin.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

I think the Spanish press and the aristocracy worked overtime to smear Q Letizia's image. Both groups were both shocked that Felipe chose a commoner. The aristocracy wanted Felipe to marry either another European princess or one of their daughters. And that she was a divorcee was also an issue for many in those circles. I'm happy that Letizia has endured all that has been thrown at her.

It was not really all about aristocracy etc. It was about marrying a Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) or a Laura Ingraham (Fox). Day in, day out a known face on the screens and suddenly she is "Su Alteza Real".

That was the point. Everyone expected the King to choose someone suddenly popping out of nothing, like a Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz or a Stéphanie de Lannoy. Unknown ladies, without past, without profile but from respectable families.

But Don Felipe thought that the anchor of the most viewed daily news program at the time (Telediario) apparently was a perfect choice and that was what caused the consternation, a TV celebrity instead of a unknown lady. Not that she had no blue blood. That played in some more traditional circles.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

Heu... Letizia Ortiz came into Spain's living rooms, e-ve-ry evening, to tell the news of the day. By hindsight still the most unlikely candidate ever to marry a future King of Spain. It shows that all "matching lists" ("Christian with Alexia", "Leonor with Gabriel") can directly go to the dustbin.

Letizia wasn't a super famous journalist back then. She only co-anchored the evening news for six weeks or so prior to the engagement and there were rumors that Felipe was involved to make his future wife's face better known across the country. I have friends in Spain who had never seen or heard of her before, even though she was a regular face on TV but not like THAT evening host everybody knew and felt familiar with or a famous TV celebrity.
No doubt she had a great career ahead of her but at this point many Spaniards didn't really know who she was.

 

[HRHTalDuchess]

Lol...I guess you haven't heard the fan pairings of Leonor with CP Moulay Hassan of Morocco. Now the commentary on that possible match would dwarf anything that Letizia has been subjected to...

Heu... Letizia Ortiz came into Spain's living rooms, e-ve-ry evening, to tell the news of the day. By hindsight still the most unlikely candidate ever to marry a future King of Spain. It shows that all "matching lists" ("Christian with Alexia", "Leonor with Gabriel") can directly go to the dustbin.

 

[An Ard Ri]

The 20th anniversary of the Engagement of then then Prince of Asturias and Letizia Ortiz in November 2003.
Engagement of Crown Prince Felipe of Spain, 2003