Three years after the tragic passing of Spanish television personality Ana Obregón's son, Aless Lequio, she has welcomed his daughter via surrogacy. Aless, Ana's son with Italian aristocrat Alessandro Lequio, passed away in May 2020 aged 27 after a battle with cancer.
In a world exclusive with HELLO!'s parent publication, HOLA!, Ana, 68, introduced her granddaughter – legally she is her adoptive daughter – Ana Sandra Lequio Obregón, already nicknamed Anita.
Speaking with HOLA!, the actress revealed Anita was born in a Miami hospital, three weeks before her due date, on March 20th. She says she is "very good, a big eater and sleeper, and calm."
Introducing her to HOLA! – and the world – she explained: "This girl is not my daughter, she is my granddaughter. She is Aless' daughter and when she grows up I will tell her that her dad was a hero, so she knows who he is and how proud she should be of him."
Ana opened up about the long, emotional road to welcoming Anita. One week before his passing, Aless told both his mother and father of his wish to bring a child into the world after he was gone. The process began, she said, "the day my child went to heaven."
In stunning pictures for HOLA!, the Madrid-born star wears a diamond necklace with her son's name on it as she holds her newborn granddaughter, wearing a pink lace dress, sleeping in her arms, the ocean view from Ana's Miami balcony behind them.
Though Aless had been in a private relationship with his girlfriend, Carolina, at the time of his illness, Ana didn't disclose the identity of her granddaughter's biological mother, only that a donor and surrogate were used.
However, she did address her decision to use a US-based surrogate – all forms of surrogacy are prohibited in Spain – and explained that her son had decided to preserve his frozen sperm before starting chemotherapy.
Aless was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma – a rare form of cancer affecting the bones – two years before his death. He spent several months at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, though he passed away at a hospital in Barcelona. Prior to his demise, he had studied political science and philosophy at Duke University in North Carolina, and in 2015, aged 23, he launched his own marketing agency, Polar Marketing.