Francis Franco

Born in 1954 in Madrid,[2] Francisco, a. k. a. Francis, is the third of seven children of surgeon Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú and Carmen Franco, the only child of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and Carmen Polo. His older sisters are María del Carmen and María de la O, and his four younger siblings are María del Mar, José Cristóbal, María de Aránzazu and Jaime Felipe.

Just after Francisco was born, the order of his first family name (conventionally making a reference to the father's side) and his second family name (conventionally making a reference to the mother's side) were inverted so that he could perpetuate the Franco lineage.[3]

He was educated by Beryl Hibbs, a British governess.[2]

He earned a licentiate degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM),[4] although he has never practised as physician.[5]

An avid poacher, he was sentenced to a month and a half of "major arrest" and the removal of his hunting license in 1978, trialed on a furtive hunting trip to Tarragona in 1977.[6] He was again detained in 1979 during a furtive hunting trip to the Montes Universales in possession of a Remington, yet he was cleared afterwards.[7]

He was engaged for a time to Ana García Obregón.[2][8]

Francisco Martínez-Bordiú y Franco married firstly, at Altafulla, Tarragona, on 18 December 1981, María de Suelves y Figueroa (b. Lima, 22 August 1957), daughter of Juan José de Suelves y de Ponsich, 11th Marquess of Tamarit (Barcelona, 3 November 1928 - Madrid, 26 July 2004) and Victoria de Figueroa y Borbón (m. San Sebastián, 11 August 1955), daughter of the 2nd Count of Romanones (paternal grandfather: Álvaro, 1st Conde de Romanones; maternal great-grandfather: Enrique de Borbón, 1st Duke of Seville), and had issue:

• Francisco Franco y de Suelves (b. Madrid, 30 November 1982).
• Juan José Franco y de Suelves (b. Madrid, 29 September 1985).

Francisco Franco y Martínez-Bordiú and María de Suelves y Figueroa were divorced in 1992. Upon his father's death in 1998, Francisco Franco y Martínez-Bordiú succeeded as 11th Marquis of Villaverde. After the 1988 death of his maternal grandmother, Carmen Polo, he was the only one to claim the Lordship of Meirás (together with accompanying dignity Grandee of Spain) she had held. Thus, he became 2nd Lord of Meirás.

He married secondly, at Móstoles in March 2001, Miriam Guisasola y Carrión (b. 1967), and had issue, born before wedlock:

• Alvaro Franco y Guisasola (b. Madrid, 15 August 1994).
• Miriam Franco y Guisasola (b. Madrid, 5 February 1996).

Finally they divorced in 2014.