Spanish divorcee who married Prince Felipe of Spain on May 22, 2004; she is Queen of Spain since 19 June 2014, when her husband became king.
A commoner, she is the eldest of three daughters who grew up in a middle-class family in Oviedo, Spain.. Her father was a businessman and journalist and her mother was a nurse and union official. She moved to Madrid to pursue her bachelor degree in information sciences at the University and then received her master’s degree in audiovisual journalism. After earning her master’s, she traveled to Mexico to pursue doctoral studies. She obtained a job in Mexico City working for a newspaper and was befriended by an artist, Waldo Saveedra, who used her for a model for three paintings.
Moving back to Spain, she obtained a journalist’s position with “La Neuva Espana” and worked as an editor of Agencia EFE, Spain’s news agency. There she met Alonso Guerrero whom she married in 1998. They divorced a year later.
Continuing her career, she worked for CNN Plus, Bloomberg Financial TV network and, in 2000, with Television Espanola (TVE) where she captured a “Best Reporter Under 30 Award” from the Spanish Press Association.
She met His Royal Highness Prince Felipe of Asturias at a dinner party in the fall of 2002. They dated in secret for a year and announced their engagement on November 1, 2003. In early 2004, the Mexican painter Saveedra, anounced to the Mexican press that he had painted Ortiz in the nude and was going to reveal the piece of art in Buenos Aires, Argentina on her wedding day. The Royal Family announced that it was her face on another woman’s body.
According to news reports, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Leonor, on Monday, October 31, 2005 at 01:46 AM local time in Madrid, Spain. Her second daughter named Sofia was born by Caesarean section at Madrid’s Ruber International Clinic on April 29, 2007 at 4:50 PM local time.. The joyful birth followed two months after the tragedy of Princess Letizia’s sister’s death. Erika Ortiz apparently committed suicide following the end of a relationship.
Link to Wikipedia biography