Francis Franco

Francisco de Asís "Francis" Franco y Martínez-Bordiú, 11th Marquis of Villaverde (born 9 December 1954), is a Spanish aristocrat and manager of several business associations.[1][2]

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Franco and the second or maternal family name is Martínez-Bordiú.
Francisco Franco y Martínez-Bordiú
Marquis of Villaverde
Coat of arms of Francisco, 11th Marquis of Villaverde
Lord of Meirás
Tenure6 February 1989 – 21 October 2022
PredecessorCarmen Polo
Marquis of Villaverde
Tenure4 February 1998 – present
PredecessorCristóbal Martínez-Bordiú
BornFrancisco Martínez-Bordiu y Franco
(1954-12-09) 9 December 1954
Royal Palace of El Pardo, Spain
SpouseMaría de Suelves y Figueroa (1981-1992)
Miriam Guisasola Carrión (2001-2014)
IssueFrancisco Franco de Suelves
Juan José Franco de Suelves
Álvaro Franco y Guisasola
Miriam Franco y Guisasola
FatherCristóbal Martínez-Bordiú
MotherCarmen Franco

Besides his real estate businesses, he owns many parking spaces in Madrid.[2]

He is the grandson of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

Biography

Born in 1954 in Madrid,[2] Francisco is the third of seven children of surgeon Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú and Carmen Franco, the only child of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and Carmen Polo. He had two older sisters, María del Carmen and María de la O, and four younger siblings, María del Mar, José Cristóbal, María de Aránzazu and Jaime Felipe.

He earned a licentiate degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM),[3] although he has never practised as physician.[4]

Following a hunting trip to Tarragona in 1977, Franco was sentenced to one and a half months in prison and was subject to the removal of his hunting license in 1978.[5] He was again detained in 1979 during a trip to the Montes Universales in possession of a Remington but not convicted of any offence.[6]

He was engaged for a period to Ana García Obregón.[2][7]

Francisco changed the order of his surnames under orders from his grandfather in order to perpetuate his Franco lineage.[8]

See also: Spanish naming customs

Marriage and children

Francisco Martínez-Bordiú y Franco first married at Altafulla, Tarragona, on 18 December 1981, to María de Suelves y Figueroa (b. Lima, 22 August 1957), daughter of Juan José de Suelves y de Ponsich, 11th Marquess of Tamarit (Barcelona, 3 November 1928 - Madrid, 26 July 2004) and Victoria de Figueroa y Borbón (m. San Sebastián, 11 August 1955), daughter of the 2nd Count of Romanones (paternal grandfather: Álvaro, 1st Conde de Romanones; maternal great-grandfather: Enrique de Borbón, 1st Duke of Seville), and had two children:

  • Francisco Franco y de Suelves (b. Madrid, 30 November 1982).
  • Juan José Franco y de Suelves (b. Madrid, 29 September 1985).

Francisco Franco y Martínez-Bordiú and María de Suelves y Figueroa divorced in 1992. Upon his father's death in 1998, Francisco Franco y Martínez-Bordiú succeeded him as 11th Marquis of Villaverde. After the 1988 death of his maternal grandmother, Carmen Polo, he succeeded her as the 2nd Lordship of Meirás (together with accompanying dignity Grandee of Spain).

He married again at Móstoles in March 2001, Miriam Guisasola y Carrión (b. 1967), and had two children:

  • Alvaro Franco y Guisasola (b. Madrid, 15 August 1994).
  • Miriam Franco y Guisasola (b. Madrid, 5 February 1996).

The couple divorced in 2014.

References
  1. "El marqués de Villaverde y Francis, los hombres que dirigieron el clan de los Martínez-Bordiú". Vanity Fair. 8 November 2019.
  2. Galiacho, Juan Luis (4 February 2018). "Francis Franco, el nieto millonario del general: garajes, fincas y mando en plaza familiar". El Español.
  3. "La intrahistoria más reciente". La Opinión de Zamora. 30 October 2011.
  4. Rubio, Miriam (22 July 2008). "El otro Francisco Franco". Vanitatis. El Confidencial.
  5. "Francisco Franco Martínez-Bordiú, condenado como cazador furtivo". El País. 29 January 1978.
  6. "Juan Luengo: de cazar con el nieto de Franco a hacerlo con el hijo de Donald Trump". Vanitatis. El Confidencial. 27 November 2018.
  7. Barrientos, Paloma (8 April 2014). "El fiestón de Francis Franco al que no acudió ninguno de sus hermanos". Vanitatis. El Confidencial.
  8. Galiach, Juan Luis (16 November 2003). "La saga Franco despega de nuevo (The Franco saga takes off again)". El Mundo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
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