Spanish actress Ana ObregĂłn made headlines in 2023 after making an extraordinary and controversial decision in the wake of her sonâs death â choosing to honour his final wish by using his sperm to have a child via surrogate.
Anaâs son, Aless Lequio, tragically passed away from cancer in 2022 at just 27 years old. In the aftermath of his death, Ana revealed that he had expressed a deep desire to become a father; something she was determined to fulfil.
A year later, Ana welcomed a baby girl via surrogacy in the United States. She later clarified that the child, named Anita, was not her daughter, but her granddaughter; conceived with Alessâ preserved sperm.
âThis girl is not my daughter, she is my granddaughter,â Ana told ¥Hola! in April 2023. âShe is Alessâ daughter, and when she grows up I will tell her that her dad was a hero, so she knows who he is and how proud she should be of him.â
Now 70, Ana recently spoke on Spanish television about the bittersweet joy sheâs found in raising Anita, all while continuing to mourn the loss of her only son.
âMy house is full of stuffed animals and toys,â she said, smiling, per The London Evening Standard. âI even have a little ball pool where she makes me dive in.â

But as Anita grows, Ana admitted some of the physical challenges have become more difficult: âPicking her up is getting harder on my back.â
Reflecting on the shock of Alessâ diagnosis, she spoke candidly: âWe go through life thinking weâre eternal, that nothing will happen to us. Then one day, at 25 years old, someone tells you that you have an aggressive cancer. Thatâs not what you expect to hear when youâre young.â
Ana also confessed she now feels more fear raising Anita than she did when Aless was a child, shaped by the trauma of losing him.
Her decision to have a child via surrogate drew considerable public attention â not only due to the unique circumstances, but also because surrogacy is illegal in Spain. Anita was born in the US, and Ana later adopted her, becoming her legal guardian.
Speaking in earlier interviews, Ana has been open about the deep grief she endured after her sonâs death, saying she felt âdead for three years.â It wasnât until Anitaâs birth that she began to feel alive again.
In a recent ¥Hola! interview marking Anitaâs second birthday, Ana shared: âI know Iâll never feel the happiness I had when Aless was with me again. That pain will never go away. You donât accept or get over the death of a child. You just learn to live with it.â
âFortunately, Anita now fills my days,â she continued. âI was dead for three years from Alessâ death until Anita was born⊠Life is a breath of fresh air.â
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