Queen Sofia, 87, cancels outings amid decline in sister Princess Irene’s health

Queen Sofia has pulled out of public engagements to be by her sister Princess Irene’s amid her ailing health.

King Felipe’s mother, 87, was scheduled to attend the Poema del Mar Aquarium in Palma de Mallorca on Wednesday to collect an award recognizing her commitment to biodiversity conservation.

Her second appearance to be awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Las Palmas’ Paraninfo has also been cancelled.

According to HELLO!‘s sister publication, HOLA!, Princess Irene’s is “very fragile and her condition is critical”. This comes after the magazine revealed three years ago that the 83-year-old was “suffering from cognitive impairment that has progressively weakened her”.

Princess Irene of Greece, who is the youngest child of the late King Paul and Queen Frederica, never married but has always been close to her sister, Queen Sofia. The sisters’ only brother, Constantine II, the last King of the Hellenes, passed away in January 2023.

She has resided in an apartment at the Spanish royal family’s official residence, Zarzuela Palace, in Madrid since 1981.

She was last seen publicly at the wedding of her nephew, Prince Nikolaos of Greece, and Chrysi Vardinogiánni, in Athens in February 2025. Irene, who attended in a wheelchair, and was accompanied by Queen Sofia and her daughter, Infanta Cristina, is Nikolaos’s godmother.

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Meanwhile, before the palace made the announcements about her cancelled engagements, Queen Sofia was pictured at the funeral of her close friend and second cousin, Tatiana Radziwill, in Paris, France, alongside her children, King Felipe, Infanta Elena, and Infanta Cristina.