The Duchess of Alba gave her estate to her six children before marrying a civil servant 24 years younger

Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba, held more than 40 titles and was listed by Guinness World Records as the most titled person alive. Her fortune was estimated in 2011 at €600 million to €3.5 billion. It included palaces, Old Master paintings, a first edition of Don Quixote and letters of Christopher Columbus. Some of the art is classed as national heritage and cannot be sold without state permission. By 2008 she was seeing Alfonso Díez, a social security official in Madrid earning about €1,500 a month. Her six children objected to a marriage. In July 2011 she gave them their inheritance by notarised lifetime gifts and kept the use of it while she lived. Carlos, the eldest, received most of the titles, the Liria, Monterrey and Dueñas palaces, and the art held by the Fundación Casa de Alba. Díez reportedly signed away any claim to the family wealth. They married at Dueñas on 5 October 2011. She was 85. She died there three years later, aged 88. Her ashes were placed in the church of the Cristo de los Gitanos in Seville, and part went to the family pantheon at Loeches. In 2026 Carlos is 19th Duke. He opened the Liria Palace in Madrid to paying visitors on 19 September 2019. His son Fernando, Duke of Huéscar, is heir and holds Dueñas.