Going for Broke: Wealthy Duchess Gives Away Fortune for Love

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Duchess of Alba, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart and Alfonso Diez attend an event on June 30, 2011 in Madrid, Spain.

He’s no gold digger, and she’s proving it by giving away her $5 billion bank account before their wedding.

Spanish duchess Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva (seriously, who else besides royalty would have a name that long?) is worth somewhere between $850 million and $5 billion. With wealth like that, it’s only natural that her children are skeptical of her new – and much younger – fiancé’s intentions.

Twice married and twice widowed, the 85-year-old Duchess of Alba, who goes by Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart for short, has found her third true love in Alfonso Diez, 61. Diez is a civil servant in the country’s social security department and also runs a public-relations business. Is he truly fit for a queen?

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The two have been friends for a number of years, the Guardian notes. But the 24-year age gap, coupled with the wealth disparity, has raised a few eyebrows, particularly with the duchess’s six children. So she’s calming all fears by giving away her fortune pre-nuptials – to them. ”Alfonso doesn’t want anything. All he wants is me,” the BBC reports the duchess said earlier this year.

Liria Palace, Madrid (Getty Images)

Proving that’s indeed the truth, she’s allotting her fortune to her children. Each of her six children and eight grandchildren has been given a palace and a chunk of the thousands of acres of Spanish countryside that she controls, according to El Pais newspaper. For one, her eldest son Carlos will control the Liria Palace in Madrid along with its priceless collection of art by masters such as El Greco and Rembrandt. The duchess hopes this gesture will prove to her children that the love between her and Diez is genuine. But it still appears they have doubts about her nuptial endeavor.

“If in the end my mother decides to marry, we shall go, although we still don’t agree,” her son Cayetano recently told Spanish paper El Mundo. They certainly can’t use the excuse that it’s too expensive to attend.

Nick Carbone is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @nickcarbone. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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