Infanta Cristina (Cristina Federica Victoria Antonia de la Santísima Trinidad de Borbón y de Grecia, born 13 June 1965) is the younger daughter of King Juan Carlos I and his wife, Queen Sofía. She is sixth in the line of succession to the Spanish throne, after her brother King Felipe VI's children, her sister Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo, and Elena's children Felipe and Victoria.
On 26 September 1997, on the occasion of her marriage to handball player Iñaki Urdangarin, she was created Duchess of Palma de Mallorca by her father, King Juan Carlos. From 2013 to 2017, she was investigated for possible corruption involving a company she jointly owned with her husband. In 2015, her brother stripped her of her royal dukedom. In 2017, she was acquitted of all charges.
Cristina represented the Crown during the reign of her father. Since October 2011, she has remained apart from the royal family and any official act of the Crown.
Cristina de Borbón was born on 13 June 1965 at Our Lady of Loreto Sanatorium, now known as ORPEA Madrid Loreto in Madrid and was baptized into the Church at the Palacio de La Zarzuela by the Archbishop of Madrid. Her godparents were Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz (her first cousin once removed), and Infanta Maria Cristina (great-aunt).
She is a sailor, and competed in the Tornado event at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
She received her secondary education at Santa María del Camino School before graduating from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1989 with a degree in political science. She pursued postgraduate studies at New York University, obtaining an MA in international relations in 1990. In 1991, she gained practical experience working at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. In 2001, she was named United Nations goodwill ambassador for the 2nd World Assembly on Aging.
She speaks Spanish, Catalan, English, French, and Greek.
Cristina married team handball player Iñaki Urdangarin at Barcelona Cathedral on 4 October 1997. On this occasion, she was created Duchess of Palma de Mallorca for life. The couple has four children, all born at Teknon Medical Centre in Barcelona:
Juan Valentín Urdangarin y Borbón, Grandee of Spain (born 29 September 1999),
Pablo Nicolás Sebastián Urdangarin y de Borbón, Grandee of Spain (born 6 December 2000),
Miguel Urdangarin y Borbón, Grandee of Spain (born 30 April 2002),
Irene Urdangarin y Borbón, Grandee of Spain (born 5 June 2005).
They lived in Washington, D.C. from 2009 to 2012, where her husband worked for Telefónica. In August 2013, she moved with her four children to Geneva, Switzerland, to take a job with the Caixa Foundation, while her husband, who was the subject of an embezzlement investigation, remained in Barcelona.
On 24 January 2022, Cristina and Urdangarin announced their separation. The couple divorced in December 2023.
Cristina started to attend official events at a very young age. One of the first official events she attended was the proclamation of her father in November 1975. Since finishing her most basic education in 1983, Cristina, along with her sister Elena, supported their parents representing the Crown at official events such as the National Day, the wedding of Princess Astrid of Belgium, the re-burial of Queen Victoria Eugenia at El Escorial, and the state visit of Mexican president Miguel de la Madrid to Spain, among others.
After the corruption scandal of her husband, the Duchess and her husband distanced themselves from the royal family, their last official event was on 12 October 2011. After the ascension of her brother in June 2014, she formally left the royal family.
Regarding her personal work, Cristina has been working for La Caixa Foundation since October 1993. At the same time, she works for the Aga Khan Foundation. She visits Barcelona often for work, but she has lived in Geneva, Switzerland since 2013.
Since 2024, although she has maintained her residence in Geneva, she spends long periods at the Royal Palace of Zarzuela, where her younger children live with their grandmother.