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Prince Felipe, Prince of Asturias (Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y de Grecia; born January 30, 1968), styled HRH The Prince of Asturias, is the third child of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain. As the heir apparent and the Prince of Asturias, he is first in the line of succession to the Spanish throne.
Felipe was born in Madrid. His birth, after that of his two sisters, the infantas Elena and Cristina, ensured male succession to the Spanish throne.
At birth Felipe was given the titles of Infante of Spain, Prince of Gerona, Prince of Viana, Duke of Montblanch, Count of Cervera, and Lord of Balaguer.
The symbolic names given at his christening including the names of the first Bourbon to reign in Spain; his grandfathers (Juan de Borbón, Count of Barcelona and Paul of Greece); his great-grandfather King Alfonso XIII; and All Saints (Todos los Santos) as it is customary among the Bourbons.
His godparents were HRH the Count of Barcelona, Juan de Borbón, and his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria Eugenia.
He studied at kindergarten, primary and secondary levels, at Santa Maria de los Rosales, a modern school in Madrid which he attended as a day student until 1984.
He then spent the equivalent of the university entrance year at Lakefield College School in Canada.
From September 1985 to July 1988, His Royal Highness trained at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, the Naval School in Marin and the General Academy of the Air Force in San Javier, and in July 1989 received despatches as Infantry Lieutenant, Sub-Lieutenant and Lieutenant of the Air Arm.
From 1987 to 1993 the Prince of Asturias studied at Autonomous University in Madrid, where he took a degree in law and also attended courses on economics. Later he completed a master's degree in international relations at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, in Washington, DC, graduating on 26 May 1995.
The ranks he holds in the Spanish Armed Forces today are those of Commander of the General Land Army Corps (Infantry), Lieutenant Commander in the General Navy and Commander of the General Air Force. He is also a helicopter pilot, qualified for instrument flight in Air Force Squadron 402. He has his Helicopter Pilot’s Wings for both the Land Army and the Navy.
From September 1999 to June 2000, he attended a refresher course in Security and Defence.
Since completing his academic studies in the United States, Prince Felipe has fulfilled his institutional commitments in his capacity as Heir to the Crown, chaired many official events in Spain and participated in key events in different sectors and aspects of Spanish public life.
Since October 1995, he has made a series of official visits to the Spanish Autonomous Communities with a view to gaining in-depth knowledge of Spain and making contact with other Spaniards.
He holds regular meetings with constitutional bodies and the main State institutions in order to keep in touch with their activities. He also attends meetings of the various bodies of the Central Administration and of the Autonomous Communities as required by his national and international institutional activities.
He grants public and private audiences to a large number of people with a view to receiving up-to-date information on national and international affairs. In particular, he holds meetings with people close to his own generation with outstanding careers in political, economic, cultural and media circles.
When HM the King is unable to attend, he presides over the annual presentation of despatches to Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers of the Armed Forces, and participates in military exercises held by the three Services.
He has made many official visits to European countries and to Latin America as well as to countries in the Arab world, the Far East and Australia. He shows special interest in all matters related to the European Union, the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America.
Since January 1996, the Prince of Asturias has represented the Spanish State at the swearing-in ceremonies for Latin American Presidents.
He has also played a very active role in the promotion of Spain's economic and commercial interests and of Spanish language and culture in foreign countries. He frequently presides at economic and trade fairs held by Spain abroad (Expotecnia, Expoconsumo and Expohabitat) and is especially interested in promoting the creation of Centres and University Chairs to disseminate the history and current situation of Spain in the main foreign universities.
He was a member of the Olympic sailing team at the Barcelona Games in 1992, which recalled his mother's position on the Greek sailing team in 1960. He also took part in the opening ceremony as the Spanish team's standard bearer. He finished in sixth position in the Soling class and obtained an Olympic Diploma.
On November 1, 2003 his engagement to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, an award-winning television journalist formerly of CNN, was announced. The couple married on the morning of May 22, 2004 in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, Spain, with members of several European royal families attending. Ortiz had previously been married to Alonso Guerrero, a teacher and author; they were divorced in 2002. The wedding was watched by more than 25 million television viewers in Spain alone, and was broadcast throughout the world.
Since the marriage, however, photographs have been published suggesting that the Princess of Asturias has lost weight — Gala magazine published some startling photographs of the princess in March 2005 showing frail arms, sharp shoulder blades, and sunken cheeks — perhaps an indication, observers stated, of anorexia. In an unusual move, the Spanish Royal House denied that she had that or any other illness.
On May 8, 2005, the Spanish Royal House announced that the couple were expecting their first child in November. The newborn would become the second in the succession to king Juan Carlos after prince Felipe. This has revived discussion about the reforming of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 to abolish the precedence of male heirs over their sisters.
After the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings, the Prince and Princess of Asturias, along with his sisters Elena and Cristina, became the first members of the Spanish royal family ever to take part in a public protest.
In addition to his official activities, Prince Felipe is Honorary President of several Associations and Foundations, such as the Codespa Foundation, which finances specific economic and social development activities in Ibero-America and other countries, and the Spanish branch of the Association of European Journalists, which is composed of outstanding communications professionals. Most noteworthy is the Príncipe de Asturias Foundation, where he presides annually the Awards ceremony of these highly prestigious Awards, at the international level, that carry his name.
Within the framework of these institutions which work towards aims of general interest, he focuses his interest on activities in the fields of development projects, voluntary work, the environment, universities, the integration of young people in the workplace and business, relations between business circles and society and social communication.
On the occasion of the United Nations declaration of 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, named Prince Felipe an "Eminent Person" so that he could contribute on an international level towards enhancing the importance of voluntary workers.
Felipe has been heir to the throne since the proclamation of his father in 1975. In 1977, Felipe became Prince of Asturias, the Spanish equivalent of Prince of Wales.
On April 21, 1990, he became the first Bourbon to hold the Catalan title of Prince of Girona. Formerly no other Bourbon had ever held nor even used this title. He is also titled Prince of Viana, Duke of Montblanc, Count of Cervera and Lord of Balaguer.
On 30 January 1986, at the age of 18, he swore allegiance to the Constitution and to the King in the Spanish Parliament, fully accepting his institutional role as successor to the Crown.
By Royal Decree 284/2001 of 16 March, HRH the Prince of Asturias’s Guidon and Standard were created. The Decree describes his Coat of Arms, his Guidon and his Standard.
