For any young person, turning 18 is one of the great moments of their life. You are now an adult, you can vote, your parents will probably let you go out later, you can get your driving license, you can even leave your city and live away from what you have always known to study. When you are the Heir to the throne, when you are Infanta Leonor, turning 18 is all that, but it is also a responsibility that ordinary mortals cannot understand.
Tomorrow, Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz, the Princess of Asturias, the woman who is poised to be the monarch of Spain turns 18. Leonor has grown up, although she has been preparing for it for years. That is why PLAYTheUNIT, the production company of Unidad Editorial, has been preparing the documentary Leonor, 18 years in 18 moments, for months, with which in the words of Caridad Riol, director of the documentary, “we wanted to tell who Leonor is and the milestones that we chose. They allowed her to explain her career, her training and who she was.
The documentary, which can be seen this Tuesday on Telemadrid and also on Prime Video, its co-producer, has a very clear objective: to bring the Infanta closer to people, “especially those who do not know her.” And who doesn’t know the Heiress? In fact, in recent weeks, what has been described as Leonormania has been unleashed where everything he does, every gesture, every word, even every greeting, generates an interest and admiration that has not been seen for a long time with a member of the Family. Real. But Leonor, and that is what she wants the documentary to be seen, is much more than the institutional part.
“Something has changed in the life of the Zarzuela Palace, something is going to change in our laws and something is changing in the future of Spain and the rest of the monarchies. A future that at the end of the century will have a woman’s name, Leonor” says Nieves Herrero, one of the participants in Leonor, 18 years in 18 moments.
Leonor de Borbón is destined to be the queen of Spain. Since his birth, his education and his life have focused on this reality: his training, his relationship with his parents, the unconditional support of his sister Sofía, the expectations he faces, his closeness to the town and the concerns of her generation, her military career… 18 years of the Heiress’s life in 18 moments, no more, no less.
The production, which has had the approval of the Royal House, which “has offered us its support in whatever we needed,” says Riol, has had the collaboration of expert journalists at the Royal House and people close to the Princess’s entourage. , like the former vice president of Congress, Ana Pastor, who remembers how “he has practically seen her and her sister grow up”; or the journalist Nieves Herrero, who confesses that “you don’t have everything given to you just because you were born into the Royal Family, you have to earn it hard and now is your time.”
Something has changed in the life of the Zarzuela Palace, something is going to change in our laws and something is changing in the future of Spain.
“To make a documentary like this you have to do it with a lot of love and a lot of respect,” reveals Riol, adding that “especially if it is about a figure like Leonor, who is a good example for future generations.”
In fact, the documentary focuses a lot on that aspect, on what the image of the Princess of Asturias is doing to bring the Royal House closer to new generations. “She is an asset for the Crown,” says Lucía Francesch, deputy director of Telva magazine. “In the context of future sovereigns, I find Princess Leonor to be one of the best prepared. She is absolutely aware of the enormous identity that Spain has,” she says.
In the documentary the viewer will discover the two sides of Leonor: the institutional part, probably the best known, and the emotional part, the side less exposed since she was a child because that is what her parents decided, which has always insisted that their daughters have a discreet lifestyle to generate normality.
Riol places a lot of emphasis on these two parts and points out the moments that, after the production of the documentary, he considers key to getting to know the Princess: “For me, her first speech at the Princess of Asturias Awards in 2019 is very important, not only because it is some highly relevant awards that bear her name, but because it was her first public speech and in it Leonor declared her commitment to Spain.”
But also, the emotional part. “Her two years in Wales, since there, as Ascensión Vázquez says, ‘Leonor has been another companion’.” “In addition,” adds Riol, “all of us who have followed her career saw a before and after, she was no longer a child, but a girl who was beginning a path towards maturity.”
Her new colleagues are going to be essential for her
A commitment that is increasingly visible, especially since he began his military career. “It is the moment that has surprised us the most,” they say from PLAYTheUNIT. “When we delved into what it consisted of, the demands that he had and that he had to compress each of the disciplines – land, sea and air – into three years, along with his institutional agenda and, being so young, we were impressed,” they explain.
The Princess of Asturias will study a “very demanding” degree in industrial organization engineering. “And the time she has free is interrupted because they have to prepare for the next day’s training and everything is very stipulated,” she states in the documentary.
In Leonor, 18 years in 18 moments she discovers that “it is a military discipline.” Those who have followed her career most closely, such as Luis María Ansón, Almudena Martínez Fornés or Ascensión Manjavacas, reveal that Infanta Leonor “is excited”, but ahead of her “she has something that is totally unknown.” “Her new colleagues are going to be fundamental for her,” they say.
It has not been easy. Knowing and showing the Princess of Asturias in 18 moments is not only entering the institution, it is entering the life of a young woman. “The most complicated thing has been to find balance in the institutional and personal aspects of her figure,” confirms Riol.