Engagement of Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz: November 1, 2003 - Page 23

fortimo · #**441** 04-11-2013, 03:32 AM

I didn't find thread about Felipe and Letizia's relationship before the engagement. I didn't follow them very much, but I remember I was surprised when the engagement was announced. Could anybody tell something about their relationship? Where and when they met, how long were they dated? Are there any photos about this time?
Or where can I find a thread about it?
Thanks

fandesacs2003 · #**442** 04-11-2013, 04:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fortimo

I didn't find thread about Felipe and Letizia's relationship before the engagement. I didn't follow them very much, but I remember I was surprised when the engagement was announced. Could anybody tell something about their relationship? Where and when they met, how long were they dated? Are there any photos about this time?
Or where can I find a thread about it?
Thanks

There is no thread about F+L relationship before the engagement, because nobody knew about it. Theυ dated almost one year in secret, and suddenly one day in October or November 2003, Zarzuela announced the engagement and immediately Letizia moved in the Palace.
About their first meeting, either they met in a dinner organized by a journalist, and theυ met again when Letizia was covering the wreck of Prestige ship in Galicia, OR the opposite, I never managed to know which one of the two meetings was the first one.
The only picture existing with both of them, is a few days before the announcement, when Felipe is to the "Prince of Asturias" award, and Letizia is "presented' to him, they pretend to be not familiar to eachother. You can see this picture under post no 8 of this same thread, at this excat moment they relationship was secret, they pretend to be stranger to eachother.
Many journalists presents to this event, were under the shock, because these two fainted to be stranger to eachother, and less than 5 days after this, they were engaged.

They never been cought on picture in a private moment before the engagement, never. It was a secret very well kept.

fortimo · #**443** 04-11-2013, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fandesacs2003

There is no thread about F+L relationship before the engagement, because nobody knew about it. Theυ dated almost one year in secret, and suddenly one day in October or November 2003, Zarzuela announced the engagement and immediately Letizia moved in the Palace.
About their first meeting, either they met in a dinner organized by a journalist, and theυ met again when Letizia was covering the wreck of Prestige ship in Galicia, OR the opposite, I never managed to know which one of the two meetings was the first one.
The only picture existing with both of them, is a few days before the announcement, when Felipe is to the "Prince of Asturias" award, and Letizia is "presented' to him, they pretend to be not familiar to eachother. You can see this picture under post no 8 of this same thread, at this excat moment they relationship was secret, they pretend to be stranger to eachother.
Many journalists presents to this event, were under the shock, because these two fainted to be stranger to eachother, and less than 5 days after this, they were engaged.

They never been cought on picture in a private moment before the engagement, never. It was a secret very well kept.

Thanks for the answer! This is really strange. Very mystic. I remember he was dated with Eva Sannum, I don't know exactly how long - I think more years, and I assume they loved eachother very much, and than suddenly it was ended. And we heard not so long after this, that he engaged Letizia... And the spanish media/paparazzis didn't know anything??
But it seems they are in love, they are a very good team for the monarchy, have wonderful children, so maybe this one year with secret dating was enough to know, that Letizia is the best...

fandesacs2003 · #**444** 04-11-2013, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fortimo

Thanks for the answer! This is really strange. Very mystic. I remember he was dated with Eva Sannum, I don't know exactly how long - I think more years, and I assume they loved eachother very much, and than suddenly it was ended. And we heard not so long after this, that he engaged Letizia... And the spanish media/paparazzis didn't know anything??
But it seems they are in love, they are a very good team for the monarchy, have wonderful children, so maybe this one year with secret dating was enough to know, that Letizia is the best...

Felipe was dating Eva Sannum for years and was very in love with her, he was rumored to really want to marry her. They were a lot of objections because Eva Sannum was not Spanish, and also has worked as a lingerie model. Nevertheless it was also rumored that the Palace started, slowly to think to accept the idea, and the first occasion of Eva to appear into these circles was the wedding of Haakon to Mette Marit, August 2001 (or 2002, I'm not sure), as Eva was invitee by herself (not as an escort to Felipe of course). I've read at this time that Zarzuela had long negotiations with the Norwegian protocol, in order to be sure that Queen Sofia will never during the wedding celebrations be in the same room with Eva, as this could be taken by the Press as an acceptance of Eva.
Everything went well, but Eva appeared magnificent, in an electrical blue gown, with all her back "on air". In another picture, she was pictured with Felipe and other people carrying a glass of cognak. Both these appearances have been judged inappropriate for a future Queen of Spain, the the PM told to King JC that this marriage won't have the approval of the Parliament (or PM?) and Felipe had to break with Eva.

http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.gr/2...edding_21.html

Eva was true lady. It has been said that a huge press editor offered her a important amount of money to tell the press details of her love story with Felipe, but she never never talked about.
After this sad story, Felipe decided not to let anyone interfere into his life, and this is the reason he protected his new love story with Letizia, by keeping all secret. He also protected Letizia not to suffer as Isabel Sartorius and Eva Sannum did before, they had tons of journalists camping out of their homes day and night. Letizia did'nt suffer because she immediately became royal fiancee, living at the Palace and protected by body guards.
Journalists were researching all personnal and family details of past and present of Isabel Sartorius and Eva Sannum, but hey did not manage to do this with Letizia and this saved the relation and allowed this wedding.

fortimo · #**445** 04-11-2013, 11:18 AM

Thanks for the infos, I didn't know that this love with Eva was so serious and that the wedding of Haakon and Mette-Marit was maybe the test for her as future CP's of Spain... Sad story. It could be very hard for Felipe and Eva to make end for this relationship, and I can imagine, how much Felipe wanted to protect Letizia and their love.

fandesacs2003 · #**446** 04-11-2013, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fortimo

Thanks for the infos, I didn't know that this love with Eva was so serious and that the wedding of Haakon and Mette-Marit was maybe the test for her as future CP's of Spain... Sad story. It could be very hard for Felipe and Eva to make end for this relationship, and I can imagine, how much Felipe wanted to protect Letizia and their love.

Indeed. He was so hurt by the previous stories, that he really did his atmost to protect Letizia, and he succeed.
Well done, because if he had'n do this, his realation with Letizia would not end to a marriage. Not because Letizia is bad, just because noone was good enough for the Prince of Asturias, and press can always find failures.

Duke of Marmalade · #**447** 04-11-2013, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fandesacs2003

There is no thread about F+L relationship before the engagement, because nobody knew about it. Theυ dated almost one year in secret, and suddenly one day in October or November 2003, Zarzuela announced the engagement and immediately Letizia moved in the Palace.
About their first meeting, either they met in a dinner organized by a journalist, and theυ met again when Letizia was covering the wreck of Prestige ship in Galicia, OR the opposite, I never managed to know which one of the two meetings was the first one.
The only picture existing with both of them, is a few days before the announcement, when Felipe is to the "Prince of Asturias" award, and Letizia is "presented' to him, they pretend to be not familiar to eachother. You can see this picture under post no 8 of this same thread, at this excat moment they relationship was secret, they pretend to be stranger to eachother.
Many journalists presents to this event, were under the shock, because these two fainted to be stranger to eachother, and less than 5 days after this, they were engaged.

They never been cought on picture in a private moment before the engagement, never. It was a secret very well kept.

According to the official story, they met on 17 Oct 2002 at a dinner of a journalist. Letizia came along with the collague, apparently didn't know about Felipe being there, who had asked for this meeting to be arranged since he knew Letizia from TV and was keen to meet her.

They did not start dating seriously until spring of 2003. Six weeks before the engagement, Letizia started achoring the TVE evening news, there have been lots of rumours that Felipe had his hand in it because at this stage it was already clear that an engagement would take place and Felipe wanted the Spaniards to get familiar with Letizia's face or give her a wider audience, so the public would warm up with her quickly once the engagement would be confirmed.

King & Queen weren't too happy about it, but they had given everything to fight off Eva Sannum, and because the public didnt have a chance to comment, Felipe got what he wanted.

justina · #**448** 04-11-2013, 05:07 PM

Well Duke, you always call Felipa a "Mama-Boy"
it seems he has got some characteristics of his father too

Emmily · #**449** 04-11-2013, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fandesacs2003

The only picture existing with both of them, is a few days before the announcement, when Felipe is to the "Prince of Asturias" award, and Letizia is "presented' to him, they pretend to be not familiar to eachother. You can see this picture under post no 8 of this same thread, at this excat moment they relationship was secret, they pretend to be stranger to eachother.
Many journalists presents to this event, were under the shock, because these two fainted to be stranger to eachother, and less than 5 days after this, they were engaged.

They never been cought on picture in a private moment before the engagement, never. It was a secret very well kept.

It's really interesting to go back and read the first pages of this thread to see how stunned people were with the announcement. I wasn't aware of this forum at that time so missed the whole thing.

NGalitzine · #**450** 04-11-2013, 07:43 PM

I must admit I found reading this thread rather amusing.....the anger because he was not marrying a foreign princess like Madeleine of Sweden (a blonde Protestant) or at the very least a Spanish aristocrat; some suggestion that she must be pregnant because they were engaged in November and rushing to marriage in May (that one defied logic); questions about how intelligent a mere journalist could be; and anger because the Catholic Church did not have a problem with a woman who had previously been civilly married and divorced being allowed to marry in a Catholic church....apparently some people were more Catholic than the Pope. It was made even funnier because the angriest and most outraged posters seemed not to be from Spain at all.

**An Ard Ri** · #**451** 11-06-2013, 07:43 AM

Tenth anniversary of the engagement of the Prince of Asturias and Letizia Ortiz!

Se cumplen diez años del compromiso de boda de los Príncipes de Asturias | Realeza | Noticias hola.com

**An Ard Ri** · #**452** 11-15-2013, 06:05 AM

From Hola

Diez años del compromiso de Doña Letizia

IloveCP · #**453** 11-04-2016, 06:56 PM

Gifs of their engagement:

royal sass

Blog Real · #**454** 07-27-2019, 11:10 AM

Announcement of the commitment between the Prince of Asturias and Letizia Ortiz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drLI...ature=youtu.be

Blog Real · #**455** 07-27-2019, 11:29 AM

Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz's Hand Request / Engagement Interview.

On Hola's website
https://www.hola.com/bodaprincipe/lapedida/

TVE report on the engagement of Felipe and Letizia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2u-P-xyxCs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALuSzkRmd7U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7w3zdYQYE

Duke of Marmalade · #**456** 07-27-2019, 12:01 PM

"Déjame terminar" at 4 min, the most well remembered words of Letizia.

Blog Real · #**457** 08-13-2021, 03:54 PM

Mbruno · #**458** 08-13-2021, 06:12 PM

Up to this day, I am still surprised that Felipe was allowed to marry Letizia Ortiz, not only because she would be the first non-royal Spanish queen consort ever (I think), but also mostly because she was divorced and from a modest family.

I came across some articles from the time and it is interesting that royal "experts" were still discussing for example if Carlos III's Pragmatic Sanction still applied to members of the Spanish Royal Family and whether Felipe, or, for that matter, his sisters too had all been disqualified from succeeding to the throne for marrying unequally. Most scholars argued that the Pragmatic Sanction had been implicitly repealed by the constitution of 1978, but actually that was not entirely clear.

Blog Real · #**459** 04-27-2023, 09:52 PM

MARG · #**460** 04-28-2023, 12:33 AM

Wow, she really looks wonderful in those photos. She is warm and quite lovely, relaxed, confident, elegant and self-possessed. In short, a perfect candidate for a crown princess. Interestingly, that open and easy look and style seems to have totally disappeared.