Felipe, Prince of Asturias

\nHis Royal Highness The Prince of Asturias, Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso y de la Santísima Trinidad y de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia (born January 30, 1968), is the third child of King Juan Carlos of Spain and Queen Sofía, and the first in the line of succession to the Spanish throne. He was born in Spain's capital Madrid. His birth, which ensured the male succession to the crown, was a dynastic event whose importance was emphasized in the symbolic names he was given at his christening: the names of the first Bourbon to reign in Spain; his father's and mother's fathers, (Juan de Borbón, the Count of Barcelona and King Paul of Greece); his great grandfather King Alfonso XIII; and All Saints as it is customary among the Bourbons. Heir to the throne since the proclamation of his father as King in 1975, in 1977 he received the title of Prince of Asturias, together with those of Prince of Gerona and Prince of Viana, the titles vested in the heirs to the thrones of the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Navarre, whose union in the 16th century created the Spanish monarchy. He is also titled Duke of Montblanc, Count of Cervera and Lord of Balaguer. From 1987 to 1993 Prince Felipe studied at Madrid's Autonomous University, where he took a degree in law, and also attended courses on economics. Later he worked on a master's degree in international relations at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC. He was a member of the Olympic sailing team at the Barcelona Games in 1992, and took part in the opening ceremony as the Spanish team's standard bearer. He has also had a military education in the three branches of the Spanish armed forces. For several years, Felipe had a very public relationship with Eva Sannum, a Norwegian fashion model who reportedly was not deemed acceptable by his parents; she now works for the Norwegian office of the advertising agency Bates Worldwide. He was also reportedly involved with a German baroness, Christina von Wangenheim, an American heiress named Gigi Howard, and a Spanish aristocrat, Isabel Sartorius. All these relationships ended, some reportedly after his parents' expressed disapproval. The prince told Hello magazine, "I won't abandon my aim to marry someone I'm in love with." According to some sources, he also privately told his family that he would take himself out of the line of succession if he could not marry a woman of his own choice. On November 1, 2003 his engagement to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, an award-winning television journalist, was announced. The couple married on the morning of May 22, 2004 in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, Spain, with members of several European royal families attending. Ortiz had previously been married to Alonso Guerrero, a teacher and author: they were divorced in 2000. The wedding was watched by more than 25 million television viewers in Spain alone, and was broadcast throughout the world.

See also

• Prince of Asturias Awards