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Writer Jose Apezarena, a royal author and journalist, mentioned on one occasion that the monarch “needs to smile more”. He explained: “Letizia has a difficulty in that she is too conscientious. The Prince [now King Felipe VI] has on occasion commented that Letizia needs to smile more.”
Queen Letizia is a former TV presenter who married into the Spanish Royal Family in 2004.
Just like any other royal, she carries out official engagements on a weekly basis but she is rarely seen with a big smile on her face.
Jose Miguel de Elias, director of polling firm Sigma Dos, said about Queen Letizia: “She is very dedicated, very demanding with herself, she is conscious of what she has to do and that has caused her to come across as a bit serious or even a bit hard.
“But she does not want to act differently from how she is.
“Letizia has always behaved very discreetly, in the background, and this possibly has robbed her of some spontaneity and distanced her from the public.”
Body language expert Judi James explained why Queen Letizia doesn’t seem as approachable and smiley as the Duchess of Cambridge.
She said: “Spain’s Queen Letizia appears to prefer a look of almost haughty elegance compared to royals like our own perma-smiling Kate, who has upgraded her smiles recently from her pitch-perfect social smile to a wider, open-mouthed expression of fun and delight.”
In comparison, “Kate’s smile is one of her most winning characteristics and she even has dimples that always make a smile look congruent and authentic”.
“Dimpling suggests this is a ‘normal’ facial expression for someone, rather than just a flashed social signal that is used in public.”
Judi added: “It is a rather annoying fact that women are expected to smile more than men though and this could be part of the problem with the comments about Letizia’s more serious expression.
“We get asked what’s wrong if our smile-rate is low at work and told to ‘cheer up love, it might never happen’ in the street.
“Men are rarely complimented on their ‘lovely smile’ and I would imagine few people if any have commented on the fact that King Felipe will tend to wear an equally serious facial expression as his wife.”
Judi commented Queen Letizia’s “more serious facial expressions” may be because of her job as a news anchor before she joined the Royal Family.
“It could easily be down to a professional trait of looking serious and projecting gravitas on screen,” she said.
Judi explained: “Her smiles when she is smiling can often be down-turned, with her lips rising in the middle and the corners of her mouth pulled down, which tends to be more of an intelligent-looking smile than the normal wide, symmetric social one.
“Letizia seems to smile as a response to natural stimulus, rather than just smiling all the time in public.
“She tends to smile when she exchanges eye contact with her husband and she smiles when she greets people.”
The body language expert said “it is a testament to the influence and power of a smile as a social signal, meaning one we use to look polite and friendly whether we are feeling happy or not, that she has been accused of being ‘controlling’ and other more negative assessments, which could be partly based on her lack of a smile to make herself look more accessible and approachable”.
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