Look, any “damage” that’s been done to Leonor’s image was done by her parents, end of story.
The hugely negative public reaction after the incident at Palma - towards Letizia but also somewhat towards Leonor - wasn’t just because of the scene at the cathedral, although that was shocking in itself.
Letizia’s behaviour had been problematic for years. The perception that she was going through the motions at her work, such as it was, the all too often visibly bored or irritated expressions in public, the sometimes shockingly inappropriate clothing choices, the various other obvious and, to many, very off putting physical changes, the casually disrespectful gestures - walking by Sofia and a group of officials at a prior reception in Palma without acknowledging them, let alone stopping to speak to them, casually reapplying her lipstick in front of Felipe and I forget which senior government official at a formal public occasion, the obvious lack of enjoyment and lack of desire to hide her dislike for Palma for many years, (while having no trouble making use of the beautiful estate there which she and her husband don’t actually own).
And then of course there was the lack of meaningful communication with the press, (and therefore the public), on the part of both Letizia and Felipe and their determination to keep the public appearances of their daughters to as close to zero as possible. Photographs only in very controlled, choreographed settings and certainly no uppity reporter better have the gall to actually speak to the girls!
They were certainly able to have their cake and eat it for years but, of course, what all the above meant was that neither Letizia nor the girls had any bank of goodwill built up with the Spanish population. People actively disliked Letizia and they had no idea what Leonor was actually like as a person. The Spanish press had likely been getting increasingly irritated for years by Felipe and Letizia’s attitude towards them and were all too happy to drop their usually protective stance towards Felipe and his family and let them see how bad things could get with a press actively working against them and the public cheering them on.
Trying to attribute Letizia and Leonor’s current image problems to a grandmother holding her granddaughters hand or a “bitter old woman” who can’t give up the spot light is like trying to explain why the Titanic sank without mentioning the iceberg.
Sincere question. How is she being damaged? What is the 'inhumane' treatment Leonor is being subject to?
Wondering what it means that Sofia is 'traditional'. What does that mean? And how is Letizia not traditional?
