Being the second is not easy, although in the long run, Infanta Sofía, like some other royals, whom chronology placed behind first-born siblings, will be grateful for it.
The youngest daughter of Kings Felipe and Letizia, second in the order of succession, turns 17 today. She will celebrate in Wales, where following in the footsteps of her sister, Leonor, she is studying the first year of the International Baccalaureate. When, next year, she concludes those studies, having just turned 18, she will end a path, of practically the same years, in which, step by step, she has followed the same route as her heir: daycare in The brown; infant, primary and ESO at the Santa María de los Rosales school, and high school at Atlantic College. It will be then that Infanta Sofía begins her own path since, unlike her sister, she will not have to go through the military academies, nor will her coming of age be accompanied by a constitutional oath.
She has never appeared alone in public; She has done it with her parents, her sister or the four of them, but it has already been announced that in the coming months, surely taking advantage of one of her vacation periods, Infanta Sofía, for the first time, will star in a solo act when presenting the award. of National Heritage photography that has been established under his name. Like her sister, until she finishes her university studies she will not have representation tasks in the royal family, beyond her attendance at the institutional events that she has attended since the proclamation of Felipe VI.
According to the rules that her father adopted after coming to the throne, Infanta Sofía, unlike her aunts Elena and Cristina, will not be able to have a paid job either as a self-employed person or as an employee; Her role, for life, will be to represent the Crown on behalf of the King, or Queen when the time comes. The only freedom that will be granted will be to unite her life with the person she decides.
At the moment, her status as second in the succession order marks her public life but not her private life, since the Kings have educated their daughters on an equal footing, and as they have grown older, both are aware of their respective positions. Leonor has set her future as Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofía also has a uniqueness: that of being the support and company of her sister. From a very young age, the two sisters have adopted a gesture that can be seen in all their public appearances: whenever they can, they hold hands.
Taller than Princess Leonor and freer when it comes to dressing and moving; Those who share life or studies with her say that Infanta Sofía is outgoing, spontaneous and talkative; In public, however, she is just as shy as her sister and she never takes the initiative, aware that her position is that of the background.
Everyone who knows her affirms that Sofía de Borbón Ortiz has inherited (or perhaps has copied) the determined character of her mother, Queen Letizia, although physically she is the same as her great-aunt Princess Irene of Greece when she was young. A lover of sports, especially soccer (the King says that when they watch a game together, Sofia knows all the plays), the infanta traveled to Australia, along with the Queen, to attend the final of the World Championship, in the that the women’s team was declared the winner.
The last time she was seen in public was last Holy Saturday when, in the company of her parents and sister, she went to see a procession in Madrid. In just over a month, she will return home to spend the summer holidays and she will be present at the institutional event that will celebrate, on June 19, the 10th anniversary of the proclamation of Felipe VI. In 2014, Sofía was seven years old and that day was, in fact, her baptism as the daughter of the King and sister of the Princess of Asturias. She is the second, yes, but, in what she does, she is the first and the only one.
