Monday, December 20, 2010

¡Feliz Cumpleaños! Infanta Elena, Duques de Lugo

Photobucket Her Royal Highness has previously merited a mention on the Pop Culture Institute due to her unprecedented marital arrangement; in November 2007 it was announced that she and her husband - banker Jaime de Marichalar y Sáenz de Tejada - had separated, and would henceforth maintain separate households...  Following a November 2009 divorce, the Duke was officially stripped of his title in February 2010 and is now no longer considered a part of the Spanish Royal Family.

Although the eldest child of Spain's King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía was briefly catapulted into the headlines around the world at the time, in the years since she's managed to maintain a far lower profile, while still keeping busy engaged in charity work and undergoing the usual royal round. If you'd like to know what she's been up to, and you can read Spanish, you might want to click here for a glimpse at her calendar of events.
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2 comments:

tankmontreal said...

There's gotta be some Windsor blood in the Spanish royal family. Wouldja lookit her? Hideous dress aside, she could easily pass for a younger Queen Elizabeth or Princess Margaret.

michael sean morris said...

The common link as usual is Queen Victoria, although to me Elena is pure Bourbon; both the Queen and Princess Margaret were great beauties in their day compared to the Spanish Infantas who, alas, take after their father more than their mother.

Anyway, it could have been worse - she could look like a Hapsburg; giant forehead, prominent upper teeth, hooked nose, no chin... (shudder) The men were worse.

Her brother Felipe is quite a looker, though. The Bourbon men fare better than their... Whatever the female equivalent of brethren is... Sisteren? No, that's too close to cistern, and even I'm not that mean.