Thursday, November 20, 2014

Flamboyant, Super Rich Duchess of Alba Dies at 88- BBC



Duchess of Alba: Spain's richest aristocrat dies aged 88

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The Duchess of Alba, Spain's richest woman and one its most eccentric figures, has died aged 88 in Seville. 

Maria del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart had more titles than any other aristocrat and owned palaces and an extensive property portfolio as well as paintings by Goya and Velazquez.
She died at home on Thursday after a short illness.

The duchess is survived by her husband of three years, Alfonso Diez, who is 25 years her junior.
The Duchess of Alba was the head of one of Spain's oldest noble families.

Her coffin was taken to the city council building in Seville, where relatives, dignitaries and members of the public paid their respects.

Spain's Duchess of Alba Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva (R) dances flamenco beside her husband Alfonso Diez outside Las Duenas Palace after their wedding in Seville in this October 5, 2011 file photo. The duchess - known for her sense of fun - surprised guests by performing the flamenco at her final wedding in 2011
Brooches of the duchess at her wedding in 2011 Brooches of the duchess, accentuating the unusual looks she had acquired as a result of plastic surgery, were handed out at her wedding as part of the celebrations
The Duchess of Alba with her husband in Madrid, 11 April 2013 Last year the duchess attended the launch of her book What Life Has Taught Me with her husband in Madrid
A statue of the Duchess of Alba in Seville, 20 November 
 A statue of the duchess already stands in Seville
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Spain's 'rebel noble', by Fiona Govan, Madrid
  The frizzy-haired eccentric aristocrat was one of Spain's most-loved figures whose antics filled the nation's gossip magazines and gripped the audiences of TV chat shows even during the final months of her long life.

Described as the "rebel noble", she spurned convention to forge her own path in life, following her passion for flamenco and, as a patron of the arts, amassing a private collection of masterpieces said to rival any in Europe.

Her exuberant character, complete with squeaky voice and flamboyant dress-sense, enraptured Spaniards who followed the vicissitudes of her 88 years.

The Duchess of Alba (file pic 1947)  
The Duchess of Alba, seen here in 1947, was one of Spain's most popular and gossiped-about figures
Once a famed beauty who turned down a request to be Picasso's muse, she shocked the establishment when she married her confessor, a defrocked Jesuit priest, in 1978, six years after the death of her first husband with whom she had six children.

But it was her third marriage to a civil servant 25 years her junior in 2011 that provoked an even bigger scandal, a union that was opposed by her children as well as King Juan Carlos of Spain, but that was welcomed by Spaniards as a colourful drama.

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The duchess was the world's most titled person, according to Guinness World Records. She was five times a duchess, 18 times a marchioness, 18 times a countess, 14 times a Spanish grandee and once a viscountess.

She was a regular in Spanish gossip magazines and was famous for hosting Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy on their visits to Spain.

The hearse carrying the coffin of Spain"s Duchess of Alba, Maria del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James-Stuart leaves the Palacio de las Duenas in Sevilla on November 20, 2014. Spain"s eccentric Duchess of Alba, one of the nation"s richest women who has more titles than any other aristocrat on earth, died today at the age of 88.  
The hearse carrying her coffin set off from one of her palaces on Wednesday
Coffin carrying Duchess of Alba enters Seville town hall  
It was driven to the city council building in Seville
Visitors pay their respects to Spain"s Duchess of Alba as her body lies in state at the Seville's City Council  
Visitors paid their respects as the body lay in state
 
In 1959, she turned her palace in Madrid over to French designer Yves Saint Laurent for a Dior fashion show.

One of the more memorable images from her latter years came when she flung off her shoes to perform an impromptu flamenco dance before a crowd of photographers and guests at her third wedding in 2011.

"Together we have a wonderful time," her husband Alfonso Diez said in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine.

"It often seems that I'm the older of the two," he said.

Her wealth, estimated at anywhere between €600m (£380m; $753m) and €3.5bn, is expected to be shared among her six children.

In her autobiography, published last year, the Duchess wrote that all she wanted was "health" and to "keep on living".

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