Duchess Gives Up Fortune to Marry Commoner

Duchess of Alba hands children their inheritance early
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 8, 2011 11:20 AM CDT
Spain's Duchess of Alba Gives Up Fortune to Marry Alfonso Díez
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Alba watch a flamenco performance at the Flamenco Museum on April 1, 2011 in Madrid, Spain.   (Getty Images)

A Spanish duchess who has more titles than any other noble on the planet is trading her fortune for marriage to a civil servant. María del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, 85, faced protests from her children and, reportedly, the king over her choice to marry social security worker Alfonso Díez. To quell their concerns, the duchess is giving her children their vast inheritance in advance—this on top of an agreement Díez had already made to make no claims on the duchess’s estate, the Guardian reports.

“Alfonso doesn't want anything. All he wants is me,” she says of the 61-year-old. The couple will sail off into the sunset minus a fortune worth somewhere between $850 million and $5 billion. (More royalty stories.)

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