Duquesa's marriage to Alfonso Díez will take place at the beginning of October

The Duquesa's marriage to Alfonso Díez will take place at the beginning of October

The Duchess of Alba with her future husband – EFE archive

 

The speculation that the Duchess of Alba is to wed ended on Tuesday with the announcement from the Duquesa herself that she is to marry Alfonso Díez, a civil servant who is 24 years her junior, at the beginning of October.

It’s understood that it will be a private ceremony with just the family and a few close friends.

There has been speculation of a possible marriage ever since the couple first began their relationship, but the rumours increased this July when the 85 year old Duquesa de Alba, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, decided to share out her inheritance between her six children before her death. It was seen as a move to overcome their objections to her marrying.

It will be the Duquesa’s third marriage. Her first husband and the father of her children, Luis Martínez de Irujo, died in 1972. She married again six years later to a former Jesuit priest, Jesús Aguirre, who became the 18th Duke of Alba.