King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain Celebrate 22nd Wedding Anniversary
King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain celebrated 22 years of marriage yesterday!
Back in 2004 he was Crown Prince Felipe and she was former news anchor Letizia Ortez. The couple exchanged vows below the soaring vaults of Almudena Cathedral in Madrid in front of 1,200 guests.
Prince Charles was in attendance alongside members of other royal households including Queen Rania of Jordan, Prince Albert of Monaco, and Princess Madeleine of Sweden.
Letizia's dress was embroidered with real gold and with a price tag of $13.7 million it ranks among the most expensive royal wedding dresses of all time.
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(For comparison, Queen Elizabeth II's wedding dress cost $1.6 million and Kate Middleton's famous Alexander McQueen lace gown was $617,000.)
The future Queen of Spain's dress was designed by Manuel Pertegaz and was woven from Valencia silk.
The skirt of the dress and the 15-foot train were embroidered with lilies, the symbol of the Spanish royal dynasty, and ears of wheat to symbolize fertility and abundance.
She accessorized with the breathtakingly delicate diamond Prussian tiara, which her mother-in-law Queen Sofia wore when she married King Juan Carlos in 1962.
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1,000 bottles of champagne were served at the wedding banquet and the wedding itself was watched on television by 25 million people across Spain.
Felipe and Letizia dated for a year before he proposed with an engagement ring featuring a band of 16 diamonds.
They have two children, 20-year-old Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and 19-year-old Infanta Sofía.
Letizia is the first Spanish queen to have been born a commoner.
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This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 4:39 AM.