His arrival in the world was a national event and the focus is still on him. The first child of the Infanta Elena and Jaime de Marichalar, who was also the first grandchild of the then kings Juan Carlos and Sofía, was born on July 17, 1998 at the Ruber Internacional clinic in Madrid, becoming the third in the line of succession to the throne, after Prince Felipe and Infanta Elena, since he kept until his cousin Leonor was born in 2005. He is 25 years old today.
At present it occupies the fourth position after the Princess of Asturias, the Infanta Sofía and her own mother. She has lived in Abu Dhabi since the beginning of the year, where her grandfather, King Juan Carlos, has found her a job in a state-owned new energy company and where, apparently, she has found peace and anonymity that she lacked in Madrid.
In recent months he has been seen accompanying his family at the funeral of Constantino de Grecia, in Athens, and at Irene Urdangarin’s graduation in Geneva. These days she is in Spain, on vacation, before returning to the emirate to be part of the team at his company that is preparing the Climate Summit to be held in Dubai in the fall.
“He will be called Felipe, after his uncle the Prince of Asturias; Juan, in memory of his grandfather the Count of Barcelona, ??and Froilán, as a tribute to the city of Lugo”, was what his father, then Duke of Lugo, said when announcing the arrival in the world of his first son. . Before he had launched a phrase that would haunt him for years: “He is just like his mother, the poor thing”, a description that he had to qualify to clarify that it was a merit and not a disgrace.
Over the years, the Froilán from Lugo became his nickname and, although during his childhood they called him Pipe and, now, just Felipe, he has never been able to get rid of the popular name. More than his mother, Felipe de Marichalar resembles his ancestor Fernando VII, which reaffirms his Bourbon vein.
A mischievous child, he was always noted in all his public appearances, reaching his moment of childhood glory at the wedding of Felipe de Borbón and Letizia Ortiz when, at almost 7 years old, dressed in a nineteenth-century jacket, he revolutionized the rest of the pages and ladies of the link, with a kick included to Victoria López-Quesada and Borbón-Dos Sicilias. His stays in Mallorca did not help either and it was at the Calanova sailing school where his first childish fights were captured, of which the more peaceful Urdangarin brothers were victims. He was a bad student, he attended primary school in Madrid’s San Patricio school and from there, at the age of 12, his parents, on the advice of Queen Sofía, sent him to a boarding school in Sussex (England), where he attended 1st year. of that.
The following year, back in Madrid, he enrolled in the El Pilar school, where he repeated 2nd ESO. When he was 16 years old, his parents, already divorced, admitted him for a summer at the Sagrada Familia Episcopal College (Safa) in Sigüenza (Guadalajara). His passage through the rigorous school allowed him to pass in September and enroll in 3rd year at El Pilar, although the following year he returned to Safa to attend 4th ESO. Later, he went to study in the United States for the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree at the Blue Ridge boarding school in Saint George, Virginia, an Episcopal center of the Anglican branch of the Church. He finally entered the business school The College for International Studies, in Madrid, to study Business Administration and Management. Currently, he is furthering business studies from Abu Dhabi.
In recent years, the son of the Infanta Elena moved in Spain in environments where it is easy to find provocateurs who, upon admitting it, made him uncomfortable by word or deed, but it is also true that he did not know how to react temperately and, often, he became entangled in incidents that ended up advising his transfer to Abu Dhabi. Those who know him say that he is impulsive but a good guy, very similar to his mother, with whom he has remained closer than to his father, Jaime de Marichalar, always looking out for his daughter Victoria, who after years in the second row has become Now in the famous family.
