Ana Obregón has given the big bell in 2023, and not because she is one of the presenters who was in charge of welcoming the ending year. He thrilled the La1 audience last New Year's Eve from Puerta del Sol. "I know that at this moment there are three people who are watching me from a privileged place; they are the people I love most in the world; my father, my mother and my son," he said at the time. Nobody imagined that the person who would become the fourth most important person in her life was already on her way: Ana Sandra Lequio Obregón.
The news exploded like a bomb on March 28 when the magazine ¡Hola! published the exclusive of the birth of a girl through surrogacy in a Miami clinic. Through this reproduction technique, the actress became a mother for the second time, at 68 years old. A week later it was learned that, in fact, the newborn was her granddaughter, daughter of Aless Lequio, who died in May 2020 after battling Ewing's Sarcoma. “This was Aless's last wish, to bring a child into the world,” she said, a wish that took Obregón almost three years to fulfill.
The announcement caused a stir and opened social and political debate. Even different ministers expressed their rejection of the use of surrogacy. For example, Pilar Alegría, head of Education, assured that this technique represents "exploitation of women and damage to the best interests of the minor." And she added: "It is not only my opinion, but also the latest ruling of the Supreme Court." While Irene Montero, who held the title of Equality, denounced that there is "a clear discrimination bias due to poverty." Along the same lines, Minister Isabel Rodríguez called this practice "just another form of slavery" and defended that "the physical integrity of women is neither bought nor sold."
Ana Obregón came to her defense from Miami, assuring that "here it is something very normalized and everyone thinks it is very good. Everyone has congratulated me, without any further problems. From the doctors to the nurses and the pediatricians. Here there is no "There is no debate." And he described the controversy generated as absurd "because this assisted reproduction technique has been done for many years and is legal in many countries around the world. Many couples who cannot have children or homosexual couples or for whatever reasons use this technique. But what scandal is this, now?"
Her advanced age for motherhood and the fact of using the frozen semen of her deceased son also fueled the debate. Respecting his 67 years, Obregón recalled two recent cases of even more advanced paternities that did not cause as much controversy, such as that of Robert de Niro at 79 years old and Al Pacino at 83.
Furthermore, in August he revealed who would take care of the girl when she was gone. This is her niece, Celia Vega-Penichet, the daughter of her sister Celia. She assured in a statement for the magazine ¡Hola! that the young woman "was like Aless's sister and is crazy about Anita. I have already talked to her about it and I have told her: 'It's already in the will: when I'm gone, you're going to take care of Anita.' My niece Celia "He's 30 years old. He's going to take perfect care of Anita when I'm gone."
In addition, the actress revealed that Aless's last wish before dying was to have children, whether she overcame cancer or not. “Ana Sandra is what my son wanted most, she asked Alessandro and me two weeks before. It was his always wish,” he insisted during the press conference for the presentation of the book The Shrew Boy (Harper Collins), the last of the three requests that the young man made before he died and that the biologist fulfilled after his death.
The long-awaited story, started by Aless and finished by her mother, was released on June 7 in Madrid. The profits from the book went to the Aless Lequio Foundation (the first of the young businessman's wishes that his parents carried out), aimed at raising funds for cancer research. A flowery Ana Obregón explained: “It is a work written by a mother with a mutilated heart and red ink of blood.”
In the book he explains the entire process of the illness that ended his son's life, from the diagnosis of cancer to his death. And he surprises with some revelations, such as his suicide attempt stopped thanks to the intervention of Alessandro Lequio.
"If my son died before me, I would not suffer for a second: I would go with him" and he detailed how he leaned over the railing of his room, where he had locked himself. "I raised one leg, passing it to the other side." And he continues: "I used excessive force with my arms that did not stop shaking and, even so, I had to hurry so that my sisters and Alessandro, who were crying in the living room, could not They would notice my absence." Finally, he reacted to the aristocrat's insistence: "Ana, for God's sake, open the door. You have something important to do. Do you remember what Aless asked us for, her last will?"
The only loose end in the story is the child's grandfather, Alessandro Lequio, who has not wanted to meet his granddaughter despite Ana Obregón's insistence. On December 17, the proud grandmother carried the girl in her arms to the Nuestra Señora de La Moraleja Parish, the same place where she said goodbye to Aless Lequio in 2020.
The little girl was wearing the skirt that her father wore during the baptism, an heirloom of Alessandro Lequio's family that is passed down from generation to generation. Celia Vega-Penichet served as godmother, while her godfather was Giacomo, a childhood friend of Aless, with whom she studied at the International College Spain in La Moraleja.
Alessandro Lequio, the great absentee at the baptism, has lived on the margins of the entire process, avoiding expressing respect and asking for privacy. "For a matter of mental hygiene I have decided not to speak, I am unable to spend all day bringing up this topic and that is why I remain silent," he explained in the program 'Vamos a Ver' where he collaborates. And he has always been focused on his family reality. "The important thing is how I am, how my wife and daughter are, and I don't care about everything else." However, it is clear from his few comments that he does not share the decisions made by the mother of his son. Aless, from the conception of Ana Sandra to the content of the published book.
Whatever it is, the truth is that Ana Obregón has revived with her granddaughter. ''A light full of love came to my darkness. I will never be alone again,' she wrote shortly after her birth. And in this her second motherhood, she is very clear about her priorities, to the point of refusing to present this year's Chimes. "I said no because look, really, I don't want to be separated from my daughter in her first year. I already know that she will be asleep but I don't care, I want to be by her side looking at her and not even the Door of the School can take that away from me. Sol, I've been doing it for I don't know how many thousand years. I started with Joaquín Prat in 1984 and we're in 2023. I've been up there intermittently." And this year it's bottle feeding.
