PRINCE Felipe and Princess Letizia tied the knot today nine years ago at the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid in front of millions of television viewers.
The bride was radiant in a dress designed by Manuel Pertegaz, and 12 reigning Royals from around the world and 12 other non-reigning aristocratic families attended the ceremony.
Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, who was 31 on the day of her wedding, had been a news reporter for Spain's Channel 1, TVE.
She kept her relationship with the Prince very secret until practically the last minute and when friends asked who her new mystery boyfriend was, she reportedly answered: “You'll find out soon enough.”
And these friends – as well as the whole of Spain and most of the world – found out on November 1, 2003 when the engagement was officially announced.
In the lead-up to the wedding of the year – the first State wedding in 50 years, an honour only granted to the direct heir to the throne – and after the 'I do', media speculation was rife as to whether a princess who was not born into the aristocracy would cope with the role.
In the same way as the media has compared the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton to her late mother-in-law Princess Diana, Letizia was also scrutinised in Spain's glossy magazines which wondered whether she would meet the same fate as the Princess of Wales, who struggled to adapt to being a Royal, suffered mental health problems and eventually divorced Prince Charles some years before her death in a car crash in August 1997.
Spain's media largely concluded that Letizia was better prepared for her daunting new role, having already been a successful career woman, worked and studied all over the world – including in dangerous situations - and been married before.
Letizia, from newsreader to Royal overnight
Fashion icon and loving mother of two beautiful girls – Leonor, seven and Sofía, five – Letizia, now 40, went from reading the headlines on the main Spanish news programme to holding six titles.
She is now Princess of Asturias, her most prominent official name, and is referred to as Her Royal Highness, and is also Princess of Girona, Princess of Viana, Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer.
She took to her Royal duties like a duck to water and appears completely natural in the role.
Born in Sanatorio Miñor, near Oviedo in the northern region of Asturias to nurse Paloma Rocasolano and journalist Jesús José Ortiz, who divorced when she was 26, Princess Letizia is the eldest of three daughters – Telma, 39, an economist who used to work for Médicos sin Fronteras and for Barcelona city council, and Érika, an interior and graphic designer who committed suicide six years ago at the age of 31.
Her paternal grandmother, Menchu Álvarez del Valle, 85, is a former DJ for Radio Asturias.
Educated at a State school and with a degree in journalism and a master's in audio-visual media, Letizia has worked and studied in Guadalajara (México), where she started – but never finished – a PhD in the subject.
She has also worked for news agencies ABC, CNN+ and EFE, as well as Bloomberg TV in the USA, and won a Best Journalist Under 30 Prize in the year 2000.
Her marriage to language and literature teacher Alonso Guerrero Pérez – from her old high school - in 1998 lasted just one year, and the couple divorced in the same year as did Letizia's parents, but remain friends.
They had been together for nearly a decade beforehand, when Letizia was still in her teens.
During her career as a reporter, Letizia was sent to cover major world events including September 11, the sinking of the Prestige, and the war in Iraq.
