HE’D dated models and royalty and at one point was romantically linked to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, but from the moment Prince Felipe of Spain got to know Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano he didn’t have eyes for anyone else.
His father, King Juan Carlos I, wasn’t that wild about Felipe’s beautiful TV presenter girlfriend though – not only was she a commoner, but also a divorcée, so the monarch felt she wasn’t suitable marriage material for his son and heir.
But Felipe wasn’t willing to give Letizia up. When he went to ask his father for his blessing to marry her in 2003 after a whirlwind romance, he arrived prepared with an abdication letter in his pocket.
As he’d expected, his dad advised him against the marriage so he whipped out the letter. The king was so stunned that he turned to his wife, Queen Sofía, for advice. “You have no choice,” she told Juan Carlos. “If you don’t acquiesce, it will be the end of the monarchy.”
Fortunately, the reigning head of the country had the good sense to listen, because
