Next November will mark ten years since the death of Cayetana de Alba, a woman who, despite being the person with the most noble titles to her credit, knew how to win the affection of all social strata thanks to her naturalness and closeness.
One of the people who met her and who shared many moments with her was María Eugenia Fernández de Castro, with whom we have already spoken on previous occasions in Mujerhoy, reviewing different stages of her life. His relationship with his former mother-in-law, the duchess of Albacontinues to be very present and continues to profess enormous affection and gratitude for his figure.
The first thing we appreciated in our conversation with María Eugenia is a great respect for the historical dimension of Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart and the magnitude of the legacy he inherited from his parents, Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, Duke of Alba, and his mother, María del Rosario de Silva y Gurtubay, Marchioness of San Vicente del Barco.
«Cayetana’s situation was very unique. It does not exist in almost any country, to understand ourselves… She was an only child and brought together a House with an absolutely unique history and heritage. She had it so imbued that people may have an idea about her that was not accurate. He was very liberal in certain things, in terms of his sense of color, that he liked dancing, art… However, he was the most disciplined person in this world.
The enormous self-demand of the Duchess of Alba
María Eugenia, who was married for 18 years to Jacobo Siruela (one of the Duchess of Alba’s six children), describes the aristocrat as a woman very involved in the obligations derived from their position and of her assets: «Every day at 8 in the morning she was already working… She was absolutely methodical, you couldn’t be five minutes late. His secretary could call you to get ahead of you or photograph the moment of meeting her, but he was very punctual. He called everyone, he worried about what was happening in Seville, in Salamanca… He always remembered everything that needed to be taken care of or restored…”
And it adds a very significant detail of the aristocrat’s personality, fourteen times Great Spain: «You came in with her, you saw everything wonderful and suddenly she noticed a detail like that a curtain had a fold that was not well made. “Since you didn’t know how to behave as you should on every occasion, I let you see it.”
María Eugenia Fernández de Castro and the Duchess of Alba at a premiere. /
There are many chroniclers who prove that María Eugenia Fernández de Castro y Shaw She was the favorite daughter-in-law of the Duchess of Albawithout demerit from the others. They took many pleasure trips together and understood each other perfectly. The fact that they stopped being in-laws did not exactly mean that their relationship deteriorated, but quite the opposite.
«My relationship with the Duchess of Alba was excellent, but it was even more so when I separated. She had a great sense of humor, I laughed a lot with her. I also have a very good character, I don’t get angry easily, so we fit together very well,” he says.
It is well known that the Alba family has gone through delicate media moments, due to the public significance of many of its events, and the Duchess of Alba found a great ally in María Eugenia, who was collaborator of ‘Sabor a ti’ on Antena 3 with Ana Rosa Quintana, and has had a long career in the media.
«Cayetana spoke to very few people. His trusted person within the house, Ana Mari (the ruler of the Liria palace) and me. What we shared stayed between us. She was sure I didn’t say a word. If she, when I worked on television, asked me to express something, I did it.
The complicated pregnancy of her son Jacobo and the support of Cayetana
The most emotional part of the conversation comes when he tells us some delicate personal moments in which the Duchess of Alba showed with her daughter-in-law the full extent of her nobility, despite the polysemy of the term in this case.
«When I was expecting my son Jacobo I had many losses. “She welcomed me so that Jacobo (her now ex-husband, married to the journalist Inka Martí) could continue working comfortably with the first book,” she says, referring to the creation of the Siruela publishing house in which María Eugenia was a key player. . «He took me to Liria, he gave me a doctor in the morning and another in the afternoon who came to see me. He kept me in absolute stillness for three months and my son got ahead».
«I told him that I hoped that life would give me the opportunity to repay him for everything he had done for me. During those almost three months, not only did the doctors come, the cook came up to ask me what I wanted to eat, what I wanted for dinner… I had all the attention in the world. She came to see me in the morning and afternoon and sat with me at a very difficult time for me because everyone told me I was going to lose it and there I have that wonder of a son,” he concludes.