No one yet officially knows how Erika, sister of Princess Letizia Ortiz, died yesterday in her flat in Madrid (the family alone has been given the official results of the autopsy), but the press is rife with stories of her recent unhappiness… a single mother living alone, split from her sculptor boyfriend… off work for depression last year… never thought of herself as being as exciting or good looking as her other sisters (especially the Royal one, we imagine)… the list of woes goes on, culminating in the news that she had taken the two days up to her death off work, and the ineveitable conclusion in all of our minds: she killed herself.
How the Royal Household will handle this is anyone’s guess. God knows how Letizia will handle it: 6 months pregnant, the ex-newsreader turned princess, shut off from the world within the Royal walls, deprived of the voice she once had when she broadcast to the nation daily at 2 p.m. Now she has been reduced to forced media smiles and feeble waves. She is not allowed to talk to us anymore. If this turns out to be suicide, one can only imagine she will partially blame herself, for turning into the family act that none of her sisters could ever hope to follow.
So I feel sad for a 31 year-old found dead in her flat, for the 6 year old daughter she leaves behind, for her family, for death and dying in general. And I turn on the TV at lunchtime today, knowing what I will find.
We see the hearse leaving the place where the autopsy was performed. We see the tanatorio where she is to be cremated later today (these things happen quickly in Spain), and we see the vast crowds of journalists jabbering into microphones at both locations. TVE 1′s morning magazine programme, usually about health/lifestyle/gossip is fully focused on a) how the Royal family will get past the press and into the funeral home, b) the "official†story we are likely to get regarding the cause of death, c) how the real details will get out eventually (don’t worry!), while in the background the same images cycle through relentlessly – hearse leaving autopsy place – Erika with ex-boyfriend/at sister’s Royal wedding/looking traumatised by media attention – back to the hearse… and every time we see that hearse there’s the attendant falling feeling in the chest, the emotional twister, the Spanish News Special. It was the same with 9/11, and 11M, and the London bombings – the endless cycling of whatever images are most likely to tug at the heartstrings, over and over and over again… it’ll go on for days. I shall return to the Internet again for a while, until this blows over… I should have known better than to go back to the TV now, of all times, but I suppose somehow, masochisticly, I wanted them to put me through the ringer for half an hour… at least Spanish television is still able to do that with some degree of success… it is all they have left to offer.
Pepino
8 Feb 07 at 3:26 pm
Very interesting snapshot of events as they stand, along with the background on which they take place.
It struck me last night, watching the TV news, how they had piano music softly playing over the report, and the quote constantly repeating across the screen that Erika had once said (quite a long time ago I think) that “A life without love is not a life worth living”.
I think I’ve said that myself on a number of occasions, as have many countless other people, but it seems the press don’t need to wait for any confirmation of the reasons behind her death. They’ve obviously got all the info they need to keep the bulletins suitably filled.
ValenciaSon
8 Feb 07 at 3:50 pm
Meanwhile in the US, I’ve not heard or seen one second spent on this story.
Pepino
8 Feb 07 at 4:25 pm
That’s a good point. The BBC website usually picks up stories that aren’t big enough to rate a mention on the UK news, but even here, it’s not reported, but….
To be honest though, I think my viewpoint is being skewed by the fact I live in Spain. At the end of the day, it is a very “domestic” Spanish story, so I think if I still lived in the UK, and were to see it on the news, I would think “Why the hell are they telling me about the sister of a commoner who married into Royalty who happens to have died?” She’s not royalty herself. She’s a bog standard member of the public with a famous sister. Princess Letizia isn’t known in the UK, and despite being a bit of a news junkie myself, I’d never heard of her before I started making a concerted effort to immerse myself in Spanish news.
In the UK, we tend to forget that there are other Royal houses in Europe, and Kings and Queens can die in other countries, and we don’t hear much about it in the UK.
It’s a very big story here, but you could easily argue that it doesn’t deserve to be so.
Richard
8 Feb 07 at 4:25 pm
I have worked in TV in the UK for over 20 years and as each year has gone by I have seen less and less care given for the contributors of programmes and to the qualifications of the people sent to “uncover” their story. What a shock to come to Spain and find that it’s just a bloody free for all. Sometimes this journalistic style does seem to uncover some nuggets of local news that really do seem to make a difference to the peolpe involved. But I am talking about that sort of consumer style journalism where thrusting a microphone in someones face can work. As far as good investagitive journalism or documentry goes, it seems to be unimportant as long as we are entertained. Ben is right, the hotter the story the more Spain is bombarded by what can be very strong images. Sometimes these are used completely out of context. I am quite shocked that there seems to be no control or regulation in place. I am not singing the praises of the UK media here because I don’t think the UK is that far from going this way and I am not some sort of dictator but it does seem to be out of control here. I too have turned the TV off, hopefully my Castellano won’t suffer to much.
Pepino
8 Feb 07 at 4:30 pm
Just as a side note, I got home last night just before my flatmate, who came running in shortly after me shouting “Have you heard the news?” and ran straight to the TV.
OK, it’s all very sad, and I truly feel very sorry indeed for Letizia and the non-Royal side of her family, but this shouldn’t be gaining THIS much attention in the media.
Ben
8 Feb 07 at 4:40 pm
It shouldn’t, but as we know the real news is Letizia and how it might affect her. I see from 20minutos.com that the media now has the ‘blood’ it was after – Letizia, grief stricken and in black, broke down in front of them when giving thanks to those that had expressed their regret. How many times will that image be presented in the next 24 hours… or days? There is more than just a touch of the lady Di syndrome about the media obsession with Letizia here. I hope there isn’t more trouble ahead.
Richard
8 Feb 07 at 5:07 pm
I have just come back home from a friends house where the cleaner (they are very fortunate) was sat glued to the television. I wonder how much the cleanliness of Spanish homes is suffering today, not to mention the ironing. Oooops sorry, I’ve come over all tabloid.
Pepino
8 Feb 07 at 7:09 pm
Funny you should mention that. I’ve just got home, half and hour before the official clocking-off time of our cleaner, and she’s nowhere to be seen! The flat’s extra tidy, so she’s definitely been, but maybe she’s ran home early to watch the TV news! I always wondered when I’d catch her sat with her feet up watching the TV in the flat, but maybe she’s got my movements too well timed to be caught out!
ValenciaSon
8 Feb 07 at 10:01 pm
My wife just IM’d me to say that Anna Nicole Smith was found dead in her hotel room. Do you guys know who she is?
Joe Acosta
9 Feb 07 at 1:54 am
You beat me to the punch ValenciaSon, ironic I guess. Boy I really wouldn’t want to be a public figure in today’s media world
felipe
9 Feb 07 at 2:51 am
I would have known nothing of the event were I not a regular reader of elpais.com. At this stage the only TV news that I am aware of having carried this are the European ones telecast on our Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) here in Australia. The Australian SBS news may also have carried it as it has a more international flavour. This is interesting because the Spanish Royal wedding was quite big here, but then we had just had our own princess created then. The media follows what the media wants to. Who outside Australia has heard of David Hicks?
Ben
9 Feb 07 at 10:06 am
Not me!