![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/queen-sofia.jpg\")
<\/p>\nQueen Sofia has stepped back from her official duties to be by the side of her younger sister, Princess Irene of Greece, who is gravely ill.<\/p>\n
The 87-year-old former Spanish queen was due to receive an award for her biodiversity conservation work at the Poema del Mar Aquarium in Palma de Mallorca on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
A second engagement, where she was to be presented with an honorary doctorate at the University of Las Palmas, has likewise been called off.<\/p>\n
According to HOLA! magazine, Princess Irene’s condition is “very fragile” and “critical”, prompting the sudden change to Queen Sofia’s schedule.<\/p>\n
Queen Sofia has stepped back from her official duties to be by the side of her younger sister, Princess Irene of Greece, who is gravely ill.<\/p>\n
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GETTY<\/p>\n
The 83-year-old princess has been battling progressive cognitive impairment, a condition first reported by HOLA! three years ago that has steadily worsened over time.<\/p>\n
Princess Irene has made her home within the grounds of Zarzuela Palace, the official residence of the Spanish royal family in Madrid, where she has lived since 1981.<\/p>\n
The youngest daughter of the late King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece, she never married but has maintained an exceptionally close relationship with Queen Sofia throughout her life.<\/p>\n
Their only brother, Constantine II, who served as the last King of the Hellenes, died in January 2023.<\/p>\n
![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768394709_466_queen-sofia.jpg\")
The 87-year-old former Spanish queen was due to receive an award for her biodiversity conservation work at the Poema del Mar Aquarium in Palma de Mallorca on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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GETTY<\/p>\n
![\"Princess](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/princess-irene.jpg\")
Princess Irene has made her home within the grounds of Zarzuela Palace, the official residence of the Spanish royal family in Madrid, where she has lived since 1981.<\/p>\n
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GETTY<\/p>\n
Princess Irene made her most recent public appearance in February 2025, attending the Athens wedding of Prince Nikolaos of Greece to Chrysi Vardinogi\u00e1nni.<\/p>\n
She arrived at the ceremony in a wheelchair, accompanied by Queen Sofia and Infanta Cristina, to witness the nuptials of her godson.<\/p>\n
Prior to the palace announcing the cancellation of her engagements, Queen Sofia had been photographed in Paris at the funeral of Tatiana Radziwill, her close friend and second cousin.<\/p>\n
The former queen was joined at the service by her three children: King Felipe, Infanta Elena, and Infanta Cristina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queen Sofia has stepped back from her official duties to be by the side of her younger sister,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46,52388],"class_list":{"0":"post-237491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-royal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}