Wednesday marks the 20th wedding anniversary of Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, who are largely acknowledged for having revitalized the scandal-plagued monarchy for a new era.
The royal family celebrated the event by releasing a number of never-before-seen photos of themselves posing in the royal palace gardens in Madrid with their daughters, Princess Leonor, 18, and Princess Sofia, 17. There are no scheduled public events.
In a magnificent wedding that drew dignitaries and statesmen from all over the world, Felipe, then 36, exchanged vows and gold rings with Letizia Ortiz, a 31-year-old divorced journalist, at Madrid’s Almudena Cathedral on a rainy May 22, 2004.
He became king — and Letizia Spain’s first commoner queen — after his father, Juan Carlos, abdicated in June 2014 following a series of scandals over his finances and love life which caused the popularity of the royal family to plunge.
Adding to the monarchy’s woes, Felipe’s elder sister, Princess Cristina, was indicted on tax fraud charges. She was later acquitted.
“The crown was in crisis, and they turned things around during these 10 years,” Javier Ayuso, who headed the royal palace’s communications departments between 2012 and 2014, told AFP.
Pilar Eyre, the author of a series of books about the monarchy, said Felipe and Letizia “found the crown in a deplorable state”.
“Everyone was saying that they were not going to last and that the monarchy’s days were numbered,” she told AFP.
