Infanta Pilar

Infanta Pilar of Spain, Duchess of Badajoz (Spanish: María del Pilar Alfonsa Juana Victoria Luisa Ignacia y Todos los Santos de Borbón y Borbón; 30 July 1936 – 8 January 2020), sometimes known more simply as Pilar de Borbón, was the elder daughter of Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and Princess María Mercedes of the Two Sicilies, and older sister of King Juan Carlos I.

Spouse - Luis Gómez-Acebo y Duque de Estrada, Viscount of La Torre
(m. 1967; died 1991)

Issue

Simoneta Gómez-Acebo y Borbón
Juan Gómez-Acebo y Borbón, Viscount of La Torre
Bruno Gómez-Acebo y Borbón
Luis Gómez-Acebo y Borbón
Fernando Gómez-Acebo y Borbón

Full name María del Pilar Alfonsa Juana Victoria Luisa Ignacia y Todos los Santos de Borbón y Borbón

House Bourbons of Spain

Father Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona
Mother Princess María Mercedes of the Two Sicilies

Marriage and family

Pilar needed to renounce her rights of succession to the Spanish throne to marry a commoner as stipulated by the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III on marriages of members of the royal family; later in 1987 she was made Infanta, ad personam, by her brother King Juan Carlos with the style of Royal Highness.

She married Don Luis Gómez-Acebo y Duque de Estrada, Viscount de la Torre, Grandee of Spain (23 December 1934 – 9 March 1991) on 5 May 1967 in Lisbon, Portugal at Jerónimos Monastery. They had five children:

• María de Fátima Simoneta Luisa Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón (31 October 1968)
• Juan Filiberto Nicolás Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón, Vizconde de la Torre (6 December 1969)
• Bruno Alejandro Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón (15 June 1971)
• Luis Beltrán Ataúlfo Alfonso Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón (20 May 1973)
• Fernando Humberto Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón (13 September 1974)

Her husband died of lymphatic cancer in 1991.

Equestrian sport

Pilar de Borbón had been supporting international equestrian sport. She was President of the International Equestrian Federation from 1994 to 2006, succeeded by HRH Princess Haya bint al Hussein. She wrote the foreword of the official Spanish translation of the national instruction handbook of the German National Equestrian Federation, Técnicas Avanzadas de Equitación - Manual Oficial de Instrucción de la Federación Ecuestre Alemana.

From 1996 to 2006 she was a member of the International Olympic Committee for Spain, when she became an honorary member, and Member of the Executive Board of the Spanish Olympic Committee.

Financial holdings

Mossack Fonseca files document that in August 1974, Pilar de Borbón became president and director of the Panama-registered company Delantera Financiera SA (registered May 1969) with her husband as secretary-treasurer and director. In 1993, London-based Timothy Lloyd who had represented the undisclosed owner of the company said that Pilar de Borbón owned it. After March 1993, the intermediary representing the company was Madrid-based Gómez-Acebo & Pombo Abogados, a law firm founded by Pilar de Borbón's brother-in-law Ignacio Gómez-Acebo. From July 2006 until its dissolution in June 2014 Pilar de Borbón's son Bruno Alejandro Gómez-Acebo Borbón was director and treasurer of the company.

Illness and death

Pilar was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2019. On 5 January 2020, she was admitted to the hospital as her condition worsened. She died on 8 January 2020 at the Ruber Internacional Hospital in Madrid, with her family at her side.

Honours

See also: List of honours of the Spanish Royal Family by country National

•  Spain: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III
•  Spain: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa
•  Spain: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sports Merit

Foreign

•  Greek Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Olga and Sophia
•  Two Sicilian Royal Family (Hispano-Neapolitan branch): Dame Grand Cross of Justice of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George[12]
•  Portugal: Grand Cross of the Order of Infante Henry