House Braganza (by marriage) Father Jorge de Heredia | Religion Roman Catholic Name Isabel, of | |
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Born 22 November 1966 (age 58)
Lisbon, Portuguese Republic ( 1966-11-22 ) Issue
details... Afonso, Prince of Beira
Infanta Maria Francisca
Infante Dinis, Duke of Porto Mother Raquel Leonor Pinheiro Curvelo Spouse Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza (m. 1995) Children Afonso, Prince of Beira, Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal, Infante Dinis, Duke of Porto Parents Raquel Leonor Pinheiro Curvelo, Jorge de Heredia Similar People Duarte Pio - Duke of Braganza, Afonso - Prince of Beira, Infanta Maria Francisca, Infante Dinis - Duke of Porto, Duarte Nuno - Duke of B | ||
Dona Isabel, Duchess of Braganza (née Isabel Inês Castro Curvelo de Herédia; born 22 November 1966), is a Portuguese businesswoman who married Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, the current pretender to the defunct Portuguese throne.
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Born to descendants of Portuguese nobility, Castro Curvelo de Heredia worked as an assets manager prior to her marriage. Since marrying Duarte Pio, Isabel has left the professional world, devoted her attention to her family, and become patron to several Portuguese charities and non-profit foundations. She and her husband have had three children together, thus securing the continuation of the House of Braganza.
Early life
Isabel Inês Castro Curvelo de Herédia was born on 22 November 1966, in Lisbon, to Dom Jorge de Heredia, an architect, and Dona Raquel Leonor Pinheiro de Castro Curvelo, his wife. Since birth, she was entitled to the honorific styling of Dona (Lady), being a descendant in the male lineage of Francisco Correia de Herédia, 1st Viscount of Ribeira Brava, of the Portuguese nobility, and a famed republican, who was involved in the failed republican uprising of 28 January 1908.
Castro Curvelo de Heredia lived between metropolitan Portugal and Portuguese Angola until 1975, when Angola was granted independence. Her family subsequently moved to São Paulo, Brazil. There, she studied at the Colégio São Luís, a Jesuit-run institution. In 1990, she obtained a degree in business administration from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas and returned to Portugal to a job in BMF — Sociedade de Gestão de Patrimónios, S.A. She specialized as an asset manager.
Personal life
On 13 May 1995 she married Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, at Jerónimos Monastery. Present at the ceremony were representatives of various European royal and noble houses, President of the Republic Mário Soares, Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva, and President of the Assembly António Barbosa de Melo, among others.
Following her marriage and the birth of her first child, Afonso, Isabel resigned from her professional life and devoted herself to the management of her family and the patronage of various causes.