Spanish actress and TV personality Ana Obregón has opened up about raising her two-year-old daughter, Anita Sandra, who was born via surrogate using her late son’s sperm.
The now 70-year-old shocked the world in 2023 when she revealed she had become a mother at 68.
Months later, she clarified that the child is, biologically, her granddaughter.
Anita was conceived using an egg donor and the frozen sperm of Obregón’s son, Aless Lequio, who died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 27. He had preserved his sperm two years prior to his diagnosis.
"The girl isn't my daughter, she's my granddaughter," she told ¡Hola! magazine shortly after Anita's birth, explaining that she had fulfilled Aless' final wish of becoming a father.
Speaking in a new Spanish TV interview, Obregón gave a glimpse into her life as a parent to a toddler.
“My house is now full of stuffed animals and toys. I even have a little ball pool where she makes me dive in,” she said.
She also admitted that picking Anita up is becoming harder as she grows: “It hurts my back.”
Reflecting on her son’s illness, Obregón said: “We live our whole lives saying that we are eternal and nothing happens here. Suddenly, one day they tell you at 25 years old that you have an aggressive cancer.”
Aless, the son of Spanish aristocrat Alessandro Lecquio and nephew of King Juan Carlos, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He died two years later.
In a recent ¡Hola! interview to mark Anita's second birthday, Obregón said the child had given her life new meaning: “I was dead for three years from Aless' death until Anita was born.”
"You don't accept or get over the death of a child," she added. “You end up accepting that you'll never be able to come to terms with their departure. Fortunately, Anita now fills my days.”
She also shared how motherhood feels different this time around: “With Aless, I would go to work confident that everything would be fine.
“But life has taught me that one day you have a perfectly healthy child, and out of the blue, you're told he has a very aggressive cancer. Life is a breath of fresh air.”
Anita’s birth sparked fierce debate in Spain, where surrogacy is illegal.
Although Ana used a surrogate in the US and later adopted Anita, legally making her the child’s mother, her decision faced backlash from political leaders.
Equality Minister Irene Montero described surrogacy as a “form of violence against women,” a view echoed by Presidency Minister Félix Bolaños, who said: “Women’s bodies should neither be bought nor rented to satisfy anyone’s desires.”
Obregón has since responded to the criticism: “There are criticisms and judgments. People can be judged, but it's impossible to live without empathy.”
“I believe that when fathers and mothers put themselves in my shoes and in my soul, in my pain… As I say, I was the owner of my pain. Now, I am the owner of my revival.”
Anita Sandra now lives with Obregón in Spain, where the actress says she is focused on giving her granddaughter the love and joy her late son never had the chance to pass on himself.
