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It took the paparazzi four years to 'catch' Spain's Queen Letizia in a bikini in Mallorca: six photos of her sitting on the Fortuna with Doña Sofía for which Hola paid 300,000 euros in 2007. Now photos of Princess Leonor wearing a bikini have emerged, taken during her stay on the Juan Sebastián Elcano ship where she is doing her naval training in Uruguay.
Diez Minutos' reportedly paid between 50,000 and 60,000 euros for images that put the future Queen of Spain in the spotlight. "She is going to be pursued more than her mother," predicted Gerardo Correas, president of the International School of Protocol in Madrid.
"At a European level, there is interest in the British monarchy, Monaco and, in third place, Letizia. But for the last year the interest has been shifting towards Leonor, she is the one who sells," confirmed veteran celebrity photographer Bernardo Paz. Although the interest in the future head of state is different. "Letizia is like Barça-Madrid, she divides people because she arouses passions and resentment, but Leonor has hardly any detractors."
"With her, the interest is calmer, more natural," said historian and writer María José Rubio. Nothing to do with "the unprecedented phenomenon" of Queen Letizia. "With a European princess there wouldn't have been that fascination, but a divorced, professional, a beautiful woman... She embodied a bit of a 'Cinderella' story and was subjected to a lot of scrutiny. The Royal Household has taken great care of Leonor's image since she was a young girl and she has made us fall in love with her maturity."
Journalist Fernando Rayón agreed that the Princess of Asturias "gives a fantastic image" of the Monarchy. "She's a natural, she's easy-going, she talks to people and she's always in her place. She is like her father, who seems to neither feel nor suffer. They throw mud at the King in Valencia, but he holds his own. That's important because everything Leonor says will be published, interpreted and sometimes even distorted." It happened to Letizia - recalled Rayón - with a fallout with her mother-in-law: Doña Sofía wanted to take some photos with her granddaughters but the Queen objected. "Do we know what happened? No, we only know the interpretations that were made: that Letizia was showing her true face, that they were at loggerheads..."
We don't know what Leonor thought of this. "For Spaniards she is a stranger. Leonor and Sofia have been hidden. We are discovering her now and we like her, but we want to know more, how she thinks, what her tastes are, or if she plays with them like her grandfather. Because Don Juan Carlos played with the journalists and Doña Sofía took pictures of us paparazzi with her Polaroid in Mallorca and gave them to us," recalled Bernardo Paz. They photographed "the Infantas on bicycles, on the promenade, playing golf... and when they got older we would meet up with them and Felipe at the 'Casablanca' bar. The bodyguards wouldn't let us take photos of them, so they got on with their drinks and we got on with ours."
In the era of mobile phones, bodyguards have a hard time because anyone with one in their hand is potential paparazzi. "Before, the media could act as a barrier, but with social media, Tik Tok... it's impossible. The exposure is total. The day Leonor goes out with someone, the poor guy is going to be ripped apart right down to the braces on their teeth," Rayón pointed out graphically.
For this reason, the watchword is to protect the heiress. "They're going to keep her as far away from the media spotlight as possible, they're going to try not to let things get out of hand," said Gerardo Correas. As they can't lock her up in a castle, the containment strategy is to control what comes out. "The Royal Household is on social media, which is revolutionary. And every day we can see the photos of Leonor that are posted for free. A friend of mine, a secondary school teacher, asked her students if they followed the Princess of Asturias on Instagram, Twitter... and almost all of them followed her."
But it is clear that this material is not enough. "Letizia does not want her daughter to appear in magazines and is playing an important role. She didn't want a lot of money to be paid for the photos of Leonor in a bikini so that she wouldn't be persecuted, so that she wouldn't become a new Lady Di. That's why magazines with more economic potential haven't gone in for the photos," said a veteran paparazzi who does not want to be identified.
Have these photos bothered the Zarzuela palace? Rosa Villacastín, a well-known social chronicle journalist, replies. "The King may have taken it more calmly, but Doña Letizia is a perfectionist and tries to control everything. The thing is, the more she tries to stop her daughter from appearing in magazines, the more the photographers will hunt her down. The Queen should relax and understand that Leonor is old enough to go clubbing and go out. Everyone is going to want to take pictures of her, so the best thing to do is to behave naturally, just like the children of the Infanta Cristina, who go out with their partners, but rarely appear in magazines."
There's no money to pay for so many photos either, because the tabloid business isn't what it used to be. "Sara Carbonero can walk around with a new boyfriend because she's not going to be noticed, but today even Tamara Falcó goes unnoticed! More attention is paid to the guy who opens his shirt on 'La isla de los famosos' and those who go on 'Masterchef'," Villacastín pointed out.
He worked in a different era. "With Tita Cerveza we plastered the magazines. And Gunilla Von Bismarck... it didn't matter if she played tennis or went to a nightclub because everything was interesting," recalled the photographer: "Marta Sánchez's pose in 'Interviu' sold a million copies. But would anyone run to the newsstand today to buy a half-naked Shakira? Pantoja continues to sell and so do politicians because of curiosity, but I don't know who would pay to see Rosalía... There aren't even any magazines in the hairdresser's anymore."
Those who continue to buy them, adds the famous paparazzi Diego Arrabal, "are 70 years old or older, they haven't been able to attract young people." And that has meant that the business of the tabloid press is not even close to what it once was. "Ten years ago, photos like those of Leonor in a bikini would have sold for more than 100,000 euros. But today, to ask for that "you need to snap a kiss".
Some 70,000 euros were paid for photos of Belén Esteban's nose job in 2009. According to Arrabal, today if they give you 5,000 euros for something like that, you take it.
It's small fry compared to what he pocketed with the reports he did on Sara Carbonero and Iker Casillas - "they marked some very good years"- or Isabel Presyler with Mario Vargas Llosa.
"Today's magazines look like real estate magazines. We went into so-and-so's house," said Arrabal, who has been in the business for 37 years. His were the topless photos of Lady Di that were never published. "It has just been 31 years since that incident, it was in May. She was on holiday at the Byblos Hotel in Mijas on the Costa del Sol. She was sunbathing by the pool and took off her top so that it wouldn't leave a mark. As soon as she got up I took the photos. I had taken a room in the same hotel, but when they found out I was paparazzi they invited me to leave. So, I hid on the first floor and was able to take the photos, sixteen in total." Hola magazine bought them to take them down (it is said that they paid around one million euros).
Today, "You do something like that and they put you in jail. Magazines don't take such risks with photos any more. Sometimes they don't even take them. People now sell videos and photos of celebrities directly to television stations. They send a WhatsApp and it's quicker."
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