A STAR-STUDDED guest list for tennis ace Rafa Nadal's wedding tomorrow has been revealed – a ceremony at the Sa Fortalesa estate in northern Mallorca which will have watertight security to prevent fans or the paparazzi from entering.
Set to marry his childhood sweetheart Meri Perelló, who works with his mum in his eponymous charitable foundation, Rafa, 33 and his fiancée, 30 have already been on honeymoon in the Bahamas and the groom recently celebrated his stag night in Manacor, where he and Meri were born and still live.
Even though their son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters are currently in Oviedo, Asturias where the teenage Princess Leonor gave her first official speech last night at the awards named after her, Rex Emeritus King Juan Carlos I and his wife Queen Sofía will be at Rafa's and Meri's wedding, since the retired monarch, 81, has long been a good friend of the tennis star.
Rafa's tennis friends and colleagues Feliciano López and Fernando Verdasco, and his trainer Carlos Moyá, will all be there along with their wives and girlfriends, Sandra Gago, Ana Boyer – singer Enrique Iglesias' half-sister – and Carolina Cerezuela respectively.
Marc López, Rafa's regular doubles partner with whom he won a gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, is also due to attend, although Rafa's good friend and best rival Roger Federer is unable to go, despite having been invited.
It is hoped former Real Madrid and current FC Oporto goalkeeper Iker Casillas and his wife, reporter Sara Carbonero, will be there, although Iker is still recovering after having stents fitted due to a heart attack – tests scheduled for December will probably decide whether he can carry on at the sharp end of football - and Sara is battling early-stage ovarian cancer.
Depending upon whether he can get out of his commitments in Portland, USA, Spanish NBA basketball ace Pau Gasol may be at the wedding, along with his wife, Cat MacDonnell.
Others who have been invited but whose presence is not confirmed – as they may face schedule clashes – are pop legend Enrique Iglesias, Julio Iglesias' son, and his wife, Russian model and former tennis star Anna Kournikova, and FC Barcelona midfielder Gerard Piqué and his wife, Colombian pop-rocker Shakira.
Ex-Real Madrid legend and Juventus striker Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly confirmed his attendance, and it is assumed the Portuguese team captain's wife, Galicia-born model Georgina Rodríguez, will join him.
Rafa's 'second family' will, naturally, not miss his big day – his personal trainer Joan Forcadés, his agent Carlos Costa, whom he has been with since the age of 14, some five years before he met Meri, his doctor, Ángel Ruiz-Cotorro, and the technician from the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy, Tomeu Saova.
The proud parents are Sebastián Nadal and Ana María Parera – the latter is also chairwoman of the Rafael Nadal Foundation – and Bernat Perelló and María Pascual, Meri's mum and dad.
Rafa's uncle and one-time coach Toni Nadal will, of course, be there – and, after the bride and groom, the star guest will be Maribel Nadal Parera, Rafa's sister, who was Meri's closest friend at school and who introduced them when the girls were 14 and Rafa 17, leading to the pair's starting what has been their first and only relationship ever two years later.
Were it not for Rafa's millions and his being one of the planet's top tennis players, the couple, who will become husband and wife tomorrow over 18 months after he proposed to her on holiday in Rome, would be just about the least starry in the whole of Mallorca.
Although Rafael plays all over the world and Meri joins him at every match, neither has ever lived anywhere else except on their native island, and the furthest Meri has lived from their birth town of Manacor is the Mallorcan capital, Palma, where she studied her business degree and worked in PR for Endesa electricity board and as assistant office manager for MAPFRE insurance before joining the family firm with her fiancé's mum as her boss.
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