Princess Letizia, Current Events Part 5: May - October 2006

[lula]

This is not about a prototype. She has lost a LOT of weight, and she looks "different." I don't know about a "medical reality" because I am not in the healthcare field, but I can tell you that she looks thinner than normal, and IF HOLA is making a big deal about it, it must be very obvious--that's all. No one is harrassing her (media, I mean), but if you can say "she looks great," freedom of press or speech allows you to say "she looks" too thin. Whether it is how she is or not, the bottom line is she LOOKS thin, very thin...that's all.

It is evident that she is very thin, but normally the press does not say it to show a reality, but to create polemic.It is not an innovation, and because they repeat it is not going to change. Already they will get bored.
I do not believe that this thinner than before the pregnancy, when already they insinuated all kinds of barbarities. If you see her photos across the years, you will see that there are times that she has been a bit fatter and times that she has been a bit thinner. We all lose and gain weight, only that if a person is thin is in the habit of being more obvious. Also it is true that in spite of this apparent weakness, has an incredible resistance.

Of Hola lately remedy does not have it (The articles of the Bordiu does not have pardon ). I will say to you that in the front page of the magazine they do not do any reference to this topic, only they name the trip to China. Only they speak about the topic inside the magazine; I do not deal because into the web they have changed it, imagine that to call the attention.

 

[Ariel]

It is a common thing that when a person is thin like Letizia or other famous people, the media start commenting about possible health problems, some of them will be right and some of them are wrong. One name that comes to my mind is Keira Knightley, who has denied recently of being anorexic. It is pretty hard to be labeled with being ill in some way just because you loose weight, as it is the same thing for people who gain weight, who are threated even worse, because few people consider obesity like an illness.
The spanish royal house one denied that Letizia was sick, so assuming that like the final say about the topic. It is normal that for some people she looks great and for other people she just look too thin, same case of Victoria Beckman. Lets just not give her a label, which is really stressing for her when you add all the comments all together.

 

[biboquinhas]

It is clear that she is too thin...no matter what excuse we try to find--you can tell by her face, her neck, her arms--yes, you can be thin, but it is not thin, it is, IMO, exaggerated thinness. Her nose is very prominent now, her cheek bones--it just does not look good. No matter what excuses we try to find and how "well nourished" she is...For HOla to put that title is really weird. This is only my opinion.

I totally agree with you! In fact I read Hola and sometimes "Lecturas" and I see that they really don't want to say anything strange regarding to their royals, these Spanish magazines know how to say things in order not to say anything against them, tha's for sure!!!!!
I think she is thin yes, before her marriage she was not so thin!!
She has now a very busy agenda and that could be the reason because she is like that. I'am not judging her I'm just saying that she is very thin and that doesn't look good on her. Hola is now talking about this issue, in fact everyone comment!

 

[lula]

Always it has been said that Letizia is a very active and nervous person, and it in an inevitable way makes her consume calories that do not exceed her.

Now a life has with much more stress, and it is normal that it reflects somehow. But it is something difficultly avoidable, and the circumstances do not help. Her agenda of acts is full, they are travelling constant and have a baby with who that try to pass all the possible time. But I do not believe that it is what causes more stress. Her life has changed very much, and has pressure great, always it is someone ready to looking for the most minimal detail to criticize and to live through it like that is difficult. Though since was born Leonor is very evident that she is more relaxed. The bad thing is that it is not anything that affects only her, affects all those who surround her. In the last month, her sister appears every week in the magazines, the press chases her car, and several times have recorded Erika with her father Jesus and the little Carla. Probably, it is the hardest thing, which is something that not only concerns her life, but also to that of her family. And it is what more has hurt her always, that stuffs it to her daughter, to her parents, that her niece this one exposed to this circus...

 

[Ariel]

We can all agree that she is a very thin woman, she has a very challanging life, she is a very busy person and have few time to relax.

We can see that her family genes are helping her to be thin, even when it happens that she eats properly.

Stress and work helps to make someone thiner or fatter, whatever the way we tend to show. Most of the people show one way or the other.

So then...what we can do or she can do..not much.....i agree with Lula that she wont hold herself to do her job unless there is really an issue, not according to what the press may think but according to real facts.

We can agree that she would look even better with some more kilos, but im sure if she could do something to help it, she would have done that along time ago, just to avoid these recurrent comments, if not for herself.

So it is ok to say she is thin or even very thin, but not that fair to say she is sick or whatever.

Just my opinion.

 

[biboquinhas]

Of course not! She doesn't look sick at all! She looks healthy however, she would look better with some more kilos! Just my opinion. But she is beautiful anyway that's for sure!

 

[infanteleonor]

i think that letizia is thin but a very beutiful woman!!!!

 

[Paty]

It is obvious that Letizia is thin for constitution, she is not sick and has a good aspect and good healthyand of course she is a very pretty woman . But is very thin ( and she can´t do anything to gain weight) , for that I think that the best thing that she must do is to pretend her thinness, for example (I have said this a lot of times) she should not have such a long hair, because with the long hair her face seems to be very thin, without light, without expression. And it should have a type of court juvenile.
it´s just my opinion.

Just like that...... But anyway Letizia is a very pretty and healthy woman.
Long Hair
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7499/longhair25ao.jpg

Cut Hair
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/9799/pelocorto22uf.jpg
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5876/pelocorto6kg.jpg

 

[biboquinhas]

Yes I really think she should cut her hair a bit! But I think like Princess Mary, letizia likes to have long hair!Although I think it does not look so good on her because she is now very thin!

 

[RhapsodyBrat]

apparently, the press in Latin America has observed Princess Letizia's weight, as she appears on People en Español's online Photo Gallery:
http://www.peopleenespanol.com/pespanol/galleries/0,22491,1215969_1,00.html

Al límite de la balanza


The weight loss of the Princess of Asturias, which began when she joined the royal family and lost further weight after her pregnancy, has worried her followers. Nevertheless, she defends herself by saying that her figure is due to her privileged metabolism. (translation edited by me)

 

[Redferns]

http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/magazine/2006/356/1153241611.html

 

[Alexandria]

apparently, the press in Latin America has observed Princess Letizia's weight, as she appears on People en Español's online Photo Gallery:
http://www.peopleenespanol.com/pespanol/galleries/0,22491,1215969_1,00.html

Al límite de la balanza


The weight loss of the Princess of Asturias, which began when she joined the royal family and lost further weight after her pregnancy, has worried her followers. Nevertheless, she defends herself by saying that her figure is due to her privileged metabolism. (translation edited by me)

I think they have chosen very subjective and leading images to illustrate their point. In the first (older) picture from Letizia's days as a news anchor, her hair is down and in the second picture (from May or June), Letizia's hair is pulled back and up in a ponytail.

Anyone who reads fashion magazines, is a stylist or works with hair will tell you that if you ever want an "instant" face lift, you should pull yourself into a ponytail as it pulls everything back and up. And when one is thin already, as Letizia naturally is, pulling your hair back and up pulls the skin back (hence the instant face lift) and makes your skin look more taunt and glazes over your cheekbones.

I have full cheeks and when I pull my hair back in a pony tail everyone always asks me if I've lost weight recently, when likely I've gained weight!

It goes to show that the media can spin anything to their viewpoint.

 

[Laviollette]

I think they have chosen very subjective and leading images to illustrate their point. In the first (older) picture from Letizia's days as a news anchor, her hair is down and in the second picture (from May or June), Letizia's hair is pulled back and up in a ponytail.

Anyone who reads fashion magazines, is a stylist or works with hair will tell you that if you ever want an "instant" face lift, you should pull yourself into a ponytail as it pulls everything back and up. And when one is thin already, as Letizia naturally is, pulling your hair back and up pulls the skin back (hence the instant face lift) and makes your skin look more taunt and glazes over your cheekbones.

I have full cheeks and when I pull my hair back in a pony tail everyone always asks me if I've lost weight recently, when likely I've gained weight!

It goes to show that the media can spin anything to their viewpoint.

Imo it's obvious that Letizia is thinner today and became thinner in the months before her marriage than she was when she was first introduced to the world as Felipe's fiance. If some people don't have a problem with her thinness I won't quarrel with that but it doesn't mean that honest people can't look at her and believe that she is too thin.

 

[Alexandria]

Imo it's obvious that Letizia is thinner today and became thinner in the months before her marriage than she was when she was first introduced to the world as Felipe's fiance. If some people don't have a problem with her thinness I won't quarrel with that but it doesn't mean that honest people can't look at her and believe that she is too thin.

I am not saying that she is too thin or not thin. And yes she is thinner today than when she was an anchorwoman. But many of the other princesses have also lost weight since before they became princesses. But that isn't an issue that I'll address as I simply haven't seen Letizia's medical records to say one way or the other whether her thinness is a medical issue.

All I am saying in my above post is that of all the recent images of Letizia, one was chosen in which to purposely illustrate the point of the story. Why not pick one in which Letizia's hair is down? She has worn her hair down at numerous events in the past few weeks -- didn't the media pick on the fact that Letizia always wore her hair down and never did anything with it recently? Why pick one in which her hair is pulled back and up? They might as well have chosen one from a recent event in which her hair is pulled back in a French twist -- that made her face look very thin.

I work in the media, I know exactly how to choose a picture that illustrates my point. If I am going to write a piece to say that I think Celebrities X and Y are much too thin, given a choice between picture A where they are wearing a sleevless top with their hair in a ponytail or picture B where they are wearing long-sleeves and their hair is down and loose framing their face, I will definitely choose picture A.

I have a friend who is anorexic. She has been so for more than 10 years. She never wears her hair in a ponytail or a braid or anything of that sort because she knows that it makes her look taunt and she knows that her friends would be all over her for looking so thin, even if she isn't as thin as she actually is. She purposely wears her hair down and framed around her face to cover the sallowness of her cheekbones.

 

[Mari_*]

She said it, that's her constitution she is normally thin.
She has lost weight since she became Princess, true, but back when she worked as a journalist i guess she wasn't as active as she is right now, now she travels, she has to take care of her baby, she doesn't do the same things she did when she was single.
Those are just rumors and gossips.. last year everyone was alarmed, saying she was anorexic, and because of that she was not going to be able to get pregnant.. when she was already pregnant (the royal house had not announced it yet).
So, yes it would be good if she gained weight but at the end, what's really important is that she is healthy

 

[soCal girl]

I think Letizia is a fantastic Crown Princess and loving wife and mother. But her weight to me is puzzling. She looks like she enjoys herself and she looks so in love with Felipe and with Leonor on vacation that it almost looks like her life is perfect (I know that no one's isn't but they just look so happy!). However, she had a baby less than a year ago and she gained a lot of weight during her pregnancy (as expected) and she looks thinner now than she did pre-baby. I know we can label the weight loss as traveling or looking after the baby etc. but IMO it's more than that. People say the camera can add some weight (supposedly 10 pounds but I'm not sure about that one) to a person's body and Letizia is still very thin in pictures. Whether Letizia is taking extra effort to exercise and eat well or if it's something more. We just don't know. I just wish she would put on a little bit more weight because she looked amazing in the early stages of her pregnancy with the added weight to her face and body.

 

[LaChicaMadrilena]

Alexandria is right, it would be more fair if they published both pics with her hair loose.

And as for her pregnancy, it was said that she gained only 9 kilos of weight. I don't know if it's true, but her legs, arms and so on were almost as thin as earlier (but she had enormous belly, of course). It mustn't have been too difficult for her to recover after giving birth, in fact, durinng holiday in Lanzarote she was slim back. So I deeply think her thinnes is written in genes.

 

[Ariel]

No one can deny she has lost some weight, but we need to realize that for a person like her gaining or loosing few pounds is always evident. It may seem that she is loosing a lot or gaining a lot, as she reflect it in an evident way.
Another thing that we can't deny is that her life is probably more stressful now than in the past, more busy, less hours of resting, so she is just reflecting that on her weight like we all do (some gain, some loose) and for her who started as a thin person, it may be a little too much. She will probably looks much better with extra weight, but i think it is few we can do or she can do to stop her genes and body to react this way. If magazines and people stop speculating about her weight and possible causes like anorexia and things like this, it will just help her to not accumulate another cause of stress and giving her sometime to deal with the weight issue if it becomes an issue for her.

 

[Alexandria]

However, she had a baby less than a year ago and she gained a lot of weight during her pregnancy (as expected) and she looks thinner now than she did pre-baby.

Although she gained weight during her pregnancy (the experts say that 30-35 pounds is the average weight gain), it was all pregnancy weight. From the pictures I remember, she didn't gain it in her arms or her thighs or elsewhere. The weight gain was restricted to her belly, so once she had the baby, and once the water weight was lost, she was probably dealing with very little weight gain — if any at all.

Some people have also been known to lose more weight after their pregnancy. After my aunt had her second child, she weighed less than she did pre-baby. It was a combination of breast feeding and her new schedule that had her up and running around with a newborn and a four year old. Such weight loss isn't uncommon post-pregnancy.

 

[fandesacs2003]

Hello

I do not understand why we are making such a mess for Letizia's weight, she is free to be thin if she likes herself. Do not forget that when you are in the spotlight and you have all these beautiful stylist to dress you, and if you are built with a thin shape, you may prefer yourself thinner, you can dress whatever you want. Some people prefer her thinner, some other fatter, this is a question of taste, but in anyway it is neither a medical nor a psychological problem, she is like this.
Noone says that if a princess has 10 kilos more that the average she is sick, so why Latizia, having some kilos less, she should be sick?? She looks happy, in good health, very active, no any indication of miserable feelings, SHE IS JUST THIN, many many people ARE JUST fatter, no big deal !!!

And I think, if you are anorexic, it is very difficult to be pregnant, and you can not manage to eat, even pregnant. Letizia gained alot of weight, and her baby looked very well fed.

 

[magnik]

Question - it was talked few times, I think:
Did they give her any solo engagements in the near future? Or she always will be a hostess to Felipe? What took so long? (I was sure that Letizia as a Spaniard she should has much better way to has solo engatgement than other CPsses like Mary or Maxima which must learned new languages for their new homelands.)

 

[LaChicaMadrilena]

Question - it was talked few times, I think:
Did they give her any solo engagements in the near future? Or she always will be a hostess to Felipe? What took so long? (I was sure that Letizia as a Spaniard she should has much better way to has solo engatgement than other CPsses like Mary or Maxima which must learned new languages for their new homelands.)

I believe no one knows it for sure (maybe even Letizia herself). It's the decision of the Household of the King to build, first of all, the strong posision and image of the Princes as the couple and the Prince Felipe's, then the Princess. The attention of the mass media was focused on Letizia since their commitment, so if they had given her solo duties from the beginning, the press would have said only about her, her outfits, shoes, speeches, hairdos and so on and so on, (because she was "new" and interesting for everybody), and nobody would care about the activities of the Prince, which are novadays the most important thing for Spain. I may be wrong but IMO this is the main cause of the fact that she doesn't have any solo engagements at the moment.

 

[RhapsodyBrat]

I think they have chosen very subjective and leading images to illustrate their point. In the first (older) picture from Letizia's days as a news anchor, her hair is down and in the second picture (from May or June), Letizia's hair is pulled back and up in a ponytail.

Anyone who reads fashion magazines, is a stylist or works with hair will tell you that if you ever want an "instant" face lift, you should pull yourself into a ponytail as it pulls everything back and up. And when one is thin already, as Letizia naturally is, pulling your hair back and up pulls the skin back (hence the instant face lift) and makes your skin look more taunt and glazes over your cheekbones.

I have full cheeks and when I pull my hair back in a pony tail everyone always asks me if I've lost weight recently, when likely I've gained weight!

It goes to show that the media can spin anything to their viewpoint.

you just put a light bulb into my head, Alexandria. i agree, the pictures are subjective--if you scrutinize, you'll see that you can observe Letizia's collarbone on the 2nd pic but not on the first. that was probably their basis for saying that she has been losing weight. and i agree too with makeup! makeup mavens and stylists can teach you so many tricks on how to instantly look thinner with just changing your makeup or your hairstyle.

i believe the media always uses photos that tend to be subjective, even suggestive, to show this apparent weight loss not only on this particular case but for other celebs and personalities as well. and this, i think, is unfair because the media is being very critical while spinning the topic to suit their purposes. which is bad.

 

[RaniaRocks]

How many excuses not to see that Letizia have lost tons of weight since the engagement, I won't use the pictures from her tv days because in those they are perfectly hairdressed, makeup, the filters to catch the best parts, they ussually won't appear on profile (nose) but in a close up, and normal women looks like miss Universe.

Having said that if you took the pictures of Letizia from the engagement days is more than evident that she have lost a lot of weight (like that ugly pic with the silver dress and also in the gala with the homoplates out of the skin), even the back of the famous red dress is ugly showing the homoplates but then she gain some weight and now she's back to almost famelic, and thats not only afecting her body but her face and her hair as well, it used to be rich and silky and now is too dry and poor (except when she waives it) it dosen't look like it had being only two years since the engagement but 10 years instead. Everybody is saying that she's tinny since the longer on the streets and the offices and houses because she is and the press finally is touching the subject as they report other things in other princesses; some people choose to ignore things and others don't and in this case the press is not putting things out of context at all; the reallity check is that nobody is saying is her fault but the fact of the matter is that she's way toooooo skinny, to see the Hola (in Spanish), the "royals always does it right" magazine, in were an ugly woman (not talking about Letizia here) becomes in "the beautiful countess of...." as if you were blind.....addressing this subjetc....ha.....you can just figure it out!!!.

 

[Queen Katherine]

When I gave birth to my first child, it took me some time to get my figure back, maybe Letizia is working out too much. As Catherine Zeta Jones says:

CATHERINE ZETA-JONES has slammed celebrity mums who compete to get back in super-fit shape after giving birth.
She said that the culture of being stick-thin, which started with supermodels, seems to have grown so much that even those who have recently been pregnant feel unrelenting pressure to become skinny again.
Calling it "madness and insane," Zeta-Jones, who is the mother of two young children, said it reminded her of her younger days in dance when girls would compete to stay slim.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=17382440&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=competition-to-get-back-in-shape--after-giving-birth-is-madness--says-zeta---name_page.html

Mind you, i am no fan of Zeta-Jones, but she hits the nail on the head here. I think this relates to Letizia.​

 

[soCal girl]

Some people have also been known to lose more weight after their pregnancy. After my aunt had her second child, she weighed less than she did pre-baby. It was a combination of breast feeding and her new schedule that had her up and running around with a newborn and a four year old. Such weight loss isn't uncommon post-pregnancy.

A lot of people do lose more weight after pregnancy, just look at Kelly Ripa who is a lot thinner post-babies. Letizia is in the public eye and traveling so it makes sense that she wants to look her best. But Leonor is her first kid so she doesn't have little toddlers to fun after. It's probably nothing but I just think the rate that she's slimmed down is unusual but not unheard of.

 

[kartheina]

I think that only time will tell if concerns on Letizia’s weight is valid or not.

None of her pictures before she got married to Felipe (well, except baby pictures, of course) showed that she packed on fat and extra weight on her body. I believe that she has an ectomorphic body, which makes weight gain and muscle mass-building quite difficult. Because of such, I was not really expecting her to retain those pregnancy pounds. Although… I must agree that the extra pounds indeed looked great on her – unfortunately, she just can’t be pregnant all the time.

As for the use of her journalist photos vs. princess photos to compare her weight… Maybe, it would have been good also to check photos from her field reporting days since I would imagine that her workload then (with all the travelling) is more comparable to what she has now – as opposed to her days as a newscaster, which was sort of a desk job. I remember seeing photos of her covering the Prestige oil spill and if I remember correctly, she looked thinner then than now – I could be wrong though!

Anyway, again my take on this is just to wait because only time can tell. Since we see Letizia almost every week for different engagements, it will be next to impossible for her and Casa Real to hide from the public such a sickness – if there is indeed any! For now, I think that the Princess should even be thankful that people are concerned about her wellbeing. Even if some from the media do approach the matter a little bit harshly and aggressively, I believe that the bottomline is really genuine concern for her (I hope!).

 

[RhapsodyBrat]

amen to that, kartheina! you hit it right on the spot.

 

[kartheina]

Thanks, Rhapsodybrat. I’m glad to have shared my perspective on the matter

By the way, thanks for the Diez Minutos story that you've posted on the Infanta Leonor News thread... Apparently the princess has a “statement” there on her thinness

I read from another forum that the original source (who made the mini-interview with Letizia) is Mariangel Alcazar of La Vanguardia – a more reputable paper than Diez Minutos -- Those from Spain can correct me on this one!

Anyway, Letizia’s statement was:

“Yo no estoy delgada, soy delgada, como lo son mi madre y mis hermanas”
My translation: I am not thin (temporarily), I am thin (permanently or by nature), as it is in the case of my mother and sisters.

I don’t think she wants us to hold our breaths until she significantly gains weight. Again, I believe that that will not be until the next pregnancy.

 

[RhapsodyBrat]

you're welcome kartheina. btw, i edited my post to inlcude the entire translation of the article.

i think it's great that Princess Letizia is aware of these "rumors" and that she has responded to these herself. it prevents any further speculation, and i do hope that the press, or anyone for that matter, will respect the Princess' words.