14 DAY TRIAL // She once said that “every great love story should end in marriage” so she’s not about to let her children dictate that she shouldn’t walk down the aisle with her true love. The Duchess of Alba, one of the richest women in the world, is giving it all away to wed Alfonso Diez.
Reports in the Spanish press (coming mostly from El Pais), cited by Euro Weekly News, say that the Duchess, record holder of the longest nobiliary title in the world, has started dividing her fortune already.
With an estimated worth between 600 million and 3.5 billion Euro, the Duchess, official name Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, has her work cut out for her.
Because he children and her entire family believe that Diez, a Social Security worker who is also 25 years her junior, is only with her for her money, the Duchess is making a stand.
She’s started dividing her assets and money between family members, to prove that what she and Diez have is true love.
“As her six children and eight grandsons reportedly disapprove of her marriage to Social Security worker Alfonso Diez, she plans to give them their inheritance in advance, according to press reports,” EWN writes.
“Her eldest son Carlos Fitz-James Stuart , 63, is set to inherit the Palacio Liria in Madrid and the Monterrey Palace in Salamanca, and will gain control of the family fortune, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais,” the publication further says.
“But much of the estate is owned by the state, and cannot be sold. The father of her children was Luis Martínez de Irujo, son of the Duke of Sotomayor, who died in 1972. In 1978 she married former Jesuit priest, Jesus Aguirre y Ortiz de Zarate, who died in 2001,” adds EWN.
If true, this would confirm what the Duchess was saying back in her latest interview for Vogue, in which she gushed about Alfonso, while lamenting that her own family did not understand her.
“Alfonso doesn’t want anything. All he wants is me. I still don’t understand why my children are making it so difficult. We are not hurting anyone,” she said at the beginning of the year.
The Duchess of Alba and Alfonso initially planned on getting married in 2008, but they called the wedding off amidst reports that the King himself had called her to “discourage” her from making such a grave mistake.