Eight years after the death of the Duchess of Alba, the dispersion and distance between their children becomes more evident with the passage of time. Cayetana was the pillar of a seemingly united family although many knew that she would fall apart as soon as the duchess left this world. And so it has been. At the funeral organized by her son Cayetano every November 20 in Seville, fewer and fewer children attend than the six the aristocrat had. In the early years, those absent gave some explanations for their absence, justifying work obligations and other commitments, but lately no one bothers to comment on why they are not present in the church of Los Gitanos in the Andalusian capital, where part of the his mother’s ashes. However, Cayetano always sadly laments the absence of his brothers.
This tension between the duchess’s heirs had its main exponent in 2015, with the departure of the Duke of Arjona from the Liria palace, when Carlos, his older brother and holder of the Duchy of Albaasked him to leave the mansion and the management of the properties and businesses of the House, a commission that he had made to Cayetano his mother alive.
From Cayetana to Cayetano, the autobiographical book published in 2019 where the rider reproached the new Duke of Alba for his rudeness towards him, further worsened the relationship between the brothers. However, after an unexpected meeting between them, in 2021, there was a truce and a certain rapprochement that softened the relationship. But two weeks from December 24, the night the entire Alba family always gathered for Christmas Eve dinner at the Liria Palace, we can anticipate that there will be some gaps at the table in the gala dining room.
Carlos, the owner and lord of the palace, has not invited his brother Cayetano to dinner. The reason is that the Duke of Arjona took offense at Carlos a few years ago, who did not want to invite Genoveva Casanova to Christmas dinner with the excuse that she was no longer Cayetano’s wife and she was outside the family. “If you want, you can come alone with your two children, not her,” he told her. And the father of Luis and Amina chose to have dinner at his ex-wife’s house with the children and decline the invitation.
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This year, they haven’t even given him a chance to say no. Neither will Jacobo, Count of Siruela, sit at the table, who prefers to stay in Catalonia with his wife Inka Martí. Eugenia and her husband Narcís Rebollo, who were traveling to the United States this Tuesday, will arrive in time to have dinner with the rest of the family, in addition to Cayetana Rivera.
Nothing is the same at Christmas in the Liria palace, where the Duchess of Alba made all her children, their wives and sometimes their boyfriends and girlfriends stand firm. When Eugenia Martínez de Irujo went out with Gonzalo Miró, the filmmaker’s son also had a place at the table, although Cayetana never forgave him for refusing to attend midnight mass in the small palace chapel, given his agnostic convictions.
