Felipe, Prince of Asturias

His Royal Highness Felipe, Prince of Asturias (Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y de Grecia), styled HRH The Prince of Asturias (born January 30, 1968), is the third child of King Juan Carlos of Spain and Queen Sofía. As heir apparent, he is first in the line of succession to the Spanish throne.

Birth

His Royal Highness Don Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos, Infante of Spain, Prince of Asturias, Prince of Viana and Gerona, Duke of Montblanch, Count of Cervera, Lord of Balaguer was born in Madrid, which ensured that the male succession to the crown was a dynastic event. Its importance was emphasized by the symbolic names he was given at his christening: the names of the first Bourbon to reign in Spain; his grandfathers (Juan de Borbón, Count of Barcelona and King Paul of Greece); his great grandfather King Alfonso XIII; and All Saints as it is customary among the Bourbons.

Titles

Heir to the throne since the proclamation of his father as King in 1975, in 1977 Prince Felipe became Prince of Asturias, the Spanish equivalent to being called Prince of Wales.

On 21 April 1990, he became the first Bourbon to hold the Catalan title of Prince of Girona. Formerly no other Bourbon had ever held nor even used this title.

He is also titled Prince of Viana, Duke of Montblanc, Count of Cervera and Lord of Balaguer.

Education

From 1987 to 1993 the Prince of Asturias studied at Autonomous University in Madrid, where he took a degree in law and also attended courses on economics. Later he completed a master's degree in international relations at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, in Washington, DC. He has also had a military education in the three branches of the Spanish armed forces.

Participation in the Olympics

He was a member of the Olympic sailing team at the Barcelona Games in 1992, which recalled his mother's position on the Greek sailing team in 1960. He also took part in the opening ceremony as the Spanish team's standard bearer.

Failed and thwarted romances

For several years, Felipe had a public relationship with Eva Sannum, a Norwegian fashion model. He was also reportedly involved with a German baroness, Christina von Wangenheim, an American heiress named Gigi Howard, and a Spanish aristocrat, Isabel Sartorius.

All these relationships ended, some reportedly after his parents expressed disapproval of the women. Undaunted, the prince told Hello! magazine, "I won't abandon my aim to marry someone I'm in love with." According to some sources, he also privately told his family that he would take himself out of the line of succession if he could not marry a woman of his own choice.

Marriage

On November 1, 2003 his engagement to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, an award-winning television journalist formerly of CNN, was announced. The couple married on the morning of May 22, 2004 in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, Spain, with members of several European royal families attending. Ortiz had previously been married to Alonso Guerrero, a teacher and author; they were divorced in 2002. The wedding was watched by more than 25 million television viewers in Spain alone, and was broadcast throughout the world.

Since the marriage, however, photographs have been published showing that the Princess of Asturias has become extremely thin — Gala magazine published some startling photographs of the princess in March 2005 showing frail arms, sharp shoulder blades, and sunken cheeks — perhaps an indication, observers stated, of anorexia. In an unusual move, the Spanish Royal House denied that she had that or any other illness.

On May 8, 2005, the Spanish Royal House announced that the couple were expecting their first child in November. The newborn would become the second in the succession to king Juan Carlos after prince Felipe. This has revived discussion about the reforming of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 to abolish the precedence of male heirs over their sisters.

Public protest

After the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings, the Prince and Princess of Asturias, along with his sisters Elena and Cristina, became the first members of the Spanish royal family ever to take part in a public protest.

See also

• Prince of Asturias Awards
• List of Succession to the Spanish Throne