Queen Letizia
She can rely on Father Jesús Ortiz’ discretion
© Dana Press
Queen Letizia has not only been in the public eye since her marriage to King Felipe. Her father, on the other hand, remains discreetly in the background. Only once did he chatter out of the box about his daughter’s love for Spain’s king.
Queen Letizia, 50, has been the wife of Spain’s King Felipe, 55, for 19 years now. But there is another man who plays an important role in her life: her father Jesús Ortiz.
Jesús Ortiz revealed details about Letizia
While Letizia’s mother, Paloma Rocasolano, has been seen regularly in public since her daughter’s marriage to Felipe, Jesús Ortiz has stayed in the background. Only once has he sought the limelight and spoken about his famous daughter in an interview — right after they announced their engagement.
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The happy news that then-Crown Prince Felipe had become engaged to journalist Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano was announced on November 1, 2003. That same evening, Letizia’s father, who also worked as a journalist, gave a telephone interview and divulged interesting details about her. Speaking for the TeleCinco show “Salsa Rosa” at the time, he recalled learning that his daughter was in a serious relationship. “She suddenly told me one day that she had met someone and later that it was a little more serious,” Ortiz quoted Mujer Hoy magazine as saying. At the time, however, he did not yet know who her chosen one was.
Grandfather Jesús Ortiz (far right) cannot be missing from Princess Sofía’s communion.
© Dana Press
When chatting about his daughter, the Spaniard got really excited. She is “an avid reader” and has “a very well-equipped mind”. “She is one of the most loving, devoted and perfectionist people I know,” he said touchingly about today’s queen.
Queen Letizia can count on her family
It should be his first and so far last interview about Letizia. Almost 20 years have passed since then. 20 years in which her family exercised discretion, even though the pressure from the media was great. Jesús Ortiz once explained that for a while he even always dressed the same way so that the photographers wouldn’t get any “new material” from him. Letizia’s sister, Telma Ortiz Rocasolano, 49, went even further and filed some prosecution lawsuits in court, albeit unsuccessfully.
But the great media interest in Letizia’s family has fortunately subsided, although the 50-year-old still has a close relationship with her father and, according to “Mujer Hoy”, is in regular contact with him. Unlike Letizia’s mother, Paloma, Jesús also shuns red carpet appearances. However, he made an exception in 2019 when his granddaughter, Princess Leonor, 17, made her first appearance at an award ceremony. A year earlier, he had already supported her on her first official visit to Asturias.
Ortiz is of course also present at family celebrations such as baptisms or communions for his granddaughters Leonor and Princess Sofía, 15, but remains discreetly in the background as usual. On Epiphany, it is known that Letizia visits her father and his second wife Ana Togores together with her family at his house for the traditional “Roscón de Reyes” cake dinner, a typical Spanish cake in the shape of a wreath.
Source used: mujerhoy.com, Dana Press