MOSCOW, November 20 (Sputnik) — Spain’s Duchess of Alba, who was known for her spectacular, flamboyant lifestyle and regularly featured in Spain’s tabloid press, died at her home in Seville on Thursday at the age of 88 after contracting pneumonia, La Figaro reported.
Known as ‘Cayetana,’ her full name was Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y Silva.
The famed aristocrat had a storied family history and a fortune estimated at over $3.4 billion by Forbes. A relative of Winston Churchill, Cayetana played with Britain’s Princess Elizabeth as a girl. She also held a Guinness Book of World Records title for her 49 inherited aristocratic titles, including grandee, duchess, marchioness, countess and viscountess, The Telegraph explained.
The Duchess’s family fortune, known as the House of Alba, includes palaces and castles which have been designated protected heritage sites by the Spanish government. Her art collection includes works by Francisco Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Velazquez, and her library contains original works by Leonardo da Vinci and explorer Christopher Columbus. One of Cayetana’s ancestors is said to have been the inspiration for Goya’s famous ‘La Maja Desnuda’, and Cayetana herself was once asked by Pablo Picasso to pose for a painting in the nude, which her conservative husband had forbade at the time.
Twice-widowed, Cayetana, whose plastic surgery had made her face unrecognizable, last married in 2011. The marriage is said to have raised eyebrows among gossipers in Spain and abroad due to the fact that her last husband, Alfonzo Diez, was 25 years younger than her.
Cayetana leaves behind Alfonzo and her six children. Her son Carlos is set to take her titles. Questions abound about who will inherit her family fortune; her children contend that she had willed most of her fortune to them prior to her marriage to Diez.
According to The Guardian, Seville mayor Juan Ignasio Coido remarked in a Tweet about the Duchess’s death that “Cayetana always had Seville in her heart and for this reason she will always remain in Seville’s heart. May she rest in peace”.
