We decipher the most familiar gestures of the Kings, Leonor and Sofia: the key is in the garden benches

The key to the more informal and familiar gestures of the Kings and their daughters in this photo session is in the chosen landscape. Not only in these wonderful gardens of the National Heritage Campo del Moro de Madrid, in Madrid. Also in the banks. Some wooden seats that make up that simple image. In fact, There are four out of eleven snapshots in which Don Felipe and Doña Letizia show their most natural and spontaneous smile while sitting in the park.

Two decades have passed since that rainy May 22, 2004 when the princes of Asturias were married in the Almudena Cathedral. Felipe VI and Letizia celebrate this anniversary with their daughters, Leonor and Sofía, in a photographic collection distributed by the Casa del Rey. We decipher the gestures. We start with Letizia.

Every gesture of the Queen is a detail. In the images that she shares with her husband, she highlights the one in which they pose standing. It’s the photo, with the Royal Palace in the background. Felipe hugs Letizia from behind. A very King’s gesture for a romantic portrait. We have seen it many times in many events, like those images in Doñana, in 2020, when they gave us some very romantic gestures for Valentine’s Day.

The Queen, sitting on the back

The second photo of the marriage shows us the Queen, sitting on a garden bench, on the back, in an informal gesture in which spontaneity is sought. Her husband, behind her, poses with a funny gesture. In the distance, his daughters are walking.

Letizia, role model for her daughters

More gestures from Letizia: she holds her daughters with utmost affection. It is a very matriarchal family. The image of her, on her back, hugging them, says it all. Leonor surrounds her mother with her entire body. Is his role model.

We see the King very relaxed and very affectionate with his daughters. They adore him. It is the empty nest effect of the Kings in Zarzuela after the departure of the two young women. Above all, in the photograph in which he surrounds Sofía with her arms in a very paternal gesture of protection.

There is a photo in which Don Felipe shares a talk with his eldest daughter. They hold each other while the monarch talks to her. Photos of walks, due to movement, are more spontaneous than static poses. In this unpublished series it is the only one we have of the King and the heiress.

The two sisters, a pineapple

Leonor and Sofía miss each other very much. Separated throughout the academic year (the princess in Zaragoza and the infanta in Wales), when they see each other they can’t help but show that pineapple feeling. For this reason, they go arm in arm or pose holding each other. We see it in Oviedo, at the Princess of Asturias Awards. They are inseparable.