Princess Leonor's first-ever speech at her namesake awards

IT'S CERTAINLY been the season for schoolgirls giving speeches – after Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg's historic and emotional discourse at the UN Summit in New York, the latest brave teen to stand up in front of international crowds and be met with warm applause is Spain's Princess Leonor who, just a fortnight shy of her 14^th birthday, made her first-ever public address as a Royal and one she had penned herself.

The plucky youngster is first in line to the throne and, when she eventually succeeds her father King Felipe VI – which will probably not be for at least another 30 or 40 years, all being well, or possibly longer if he opts to continue for the rest of his natural life – HRH Leonor will be Spain's first Queen, rather than Queen Consort, since the Middle Ages.

She is already preparing for the rôle – in fact, she has been since birth – and when her dad was crowned after her granddad King Juan Carlos I abdicated in summer 2014, the Prince of Asturias Awards were renamed the Princess of Asturias awards in Leonor's honour.

There is now no Prince of Asturias in existence – HRH Felipe VI ceased to be so when he was crowned five years ago, and Leonor has no brothers, only a younger sister, Sofía, 12, which sparked a swift amendment to the Constitution upon her birth on Hallowe'en 2005 so as to allow girls to be direct heirs to the throne.

“Today is a very important day in my life which I have awaited with great excitement,” Leonor opened her speech with at the Campoamor Theatre in Asturias' main city, Oviedo, which she was visiting for the first time in her life.

“Ever since I was very little I've seen the affection and excitement with which my parents, Their Majesties the King and Queen, have come every year to the Principality [of Asturias] to preside over this ceremony and experience everything that happens in this part of the world during our prizegiving. That's already reason enough for me to feel very happy at being here today,” Leonor told the crowds, with a maturity beyond her years.

She congratulated all the award winners, recalling: “Your works remind us that there are millions of people who think and act so that the world becomes a better place.”

Leonor then repeated her congratulations in perfect English, a language in which she and her sister are fluent, having spent the last two summers at a camp in the USA.

Although, technically, Princess Leonor's first speech as a Royal was on her 13^th birthday – October 31 last year – she was only in fact reading out Article 1 of the Spanish Constitution in a ceremony to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which was signed in December 1978 and officially marked the dawn of Spain's new democratic and equal society where human rights were enshrined in law.

This time, Leonor's address was her own words – doubtless with some help and advice from her parents, especially her father, who was also 13 when he gave his own first official speech at the exact same event in 1981 – but the personal comments in it reflected her own feelings and came from the heart.

“I was less nervous than I thought I would be,” Princess Leonor said after the act, during which the audience fell in love with the 'Royal Baby' of 2005 all over again and gave her as much encouragement as they could muster.

 

From last year's €26 Zara top, Queen Letizia goes to the other extreme

Her mother, Queen Letizia – known for her elegant but modern and 'unroyal' dress sense which leads to her outfits being some of the most-copied in Spain – went to the opposite extreme at this year's awards: whilst at the 2018 prizegiving, she wore a €26 top from Zara which sold out within days except for size XS online, this time she was resplendent in a cream-with-a-hint-of-pink satin strapless top adorned with feathers which cost €680.

Straight off the catwalk – literally – HRH Letizia's corset-type top, with a black satin sash at the waist, comes from the brand set up by Juan Carlos Fernández and Antonio Burillo in 2006, known as The 2^nd Skin Co.

One of the most rapidly-rising new design labels among Spain's rich and famous, The 2^nd Skin Co. is also behind the slimline black trousers Letizia wore, and which cost €550.

In fact, the entire look was showcased at the Mercedes Benz Madrid Fashion Week as part of the autumn-winter 2019-2020 collection last year.

Letizia combined her outfit with black court shoes that were identical to – and may be the same ones as – those she wore at last year's awards, a black satin clutch bag, and Cartier earrings.