Dhe birthday is not mentioned in the official calendar of the Spanish royal family. Queen Letizia turns 50 on Thursday. Such celebrations are a private matter for the Spanish royal couple; also King Felipe VI. kept it that way for his 50th birthday. Letizia sees herself as a working queen with the right to a life of her own, away from the paparazzi’s cameras. She sometimes goes shopping herself in the Carrefour supermarket near the Zarzuela Palace. “What are you doing there?” a customer asked her in astonishment and curiosity. “Buy tomatoes, just like you,” the monarch replied quickly, as the newspaper “El País” reported.
Healthy nutrition for her family is important to her. The people they spoke to repeatedly report that the former journalist soon asked them how they fed themselves. Next to education, health is one of the most important issues, and she was committed to it from the start. On the day after her birthday, she is the guest of honor at the benefit concert of the Spanish Society for Cancer Research in Madrid.
A feminist, a fashion icon, an enigma?
Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano has made more than 3,000 public appearances since becoming a member of the royal family 18 years ago – the divorced daughter of a nurse and granddaughter of a taxi driver. The commoner has been Queen of Spain for eight years. She needed time to emancipate herself at Felipe’s side and find her own role. Shortly before her 50th birthday, she seems at peace with herself. “Her style is that of a feminist queen who is exactly where she wants to be,” writes the magazine “Hola”, and Letizia has been the cover story on “Hola” a good hundred times.
“Perfectionism” is a term that appears in almost all reports about her and is not only meant to be appreciated: the queen is too perfect, she tries to control everything down to the last detail, is a gentle accusation. That makes them unapproachable, some even speak of the cold. The weekend magazine from El País titled its homage to the birthday with “The Riddle Letizia”, with the subtitle: “Queen by profession”. Elsewhere they are called “the unknown” and “the secret”.
Abroad, too, she is often reduced to a fashion icon, as if she were primarily an influencer and brand ambassador for local producers such as Zara and Mango. Together with her stylist, who has been working for her for years, she has found her own style for herself and her daughters. What she and Crown Princess Leonor are wearing is often sold out at Spanish fashion chains the next day. Even before the corona pandemic, she was frugal. She wears her clothes more than once, which is not a given in royalty. A few months ago, she even showed up in a Valentino model worn by her mother-in-law.
