Spanish actress Ana Obregón made headlines in 2023 after making an extraordinary and controversial decision in the wake of her son’s death — choosing to honour his final wish by using his sperm to have a child via surrogate.

Ana’s 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 Aless’ preserved sperm.

“This girl is not my daughter, she is my granddaughter,” Ana told ¡Hola! in April 2023. “She is Aless’ 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.”

Now 70, Ana recently spoke on Spanish television about the bittersweet joy she’s found in raising Anita, all while continuing to mourn the loss of her only son.

“My house is full of stuffed animals and toys,” she said, smiling, per The London Evening Standard. “I even have a little ball pool where she makes me dive in.”

But as Anita grows, Ana admitted some of the physical challenges have become more difficult: “Picking her up is getting harder on my back.”

Reflecting on the shock of Aless’ diagnosis, she spoke candidly: “We go through life thinking we’re eternal, that nothing will happen to us. Then one day, at 25 years old, someone tells you that you have an aggressive cancer. That’s not what you expect to hear when you’re young.”

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 — 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 son’s death, saying she felt “dead for three years.” It wasn’t until Anita’s birth that she began to feel alive again.

In a recent ¡Hola! interview marking Anita’s second birthday, Ana shared: “I know I’ll never feel the happiness I had when Aless was with me again. That pain will never go away. You don’t accept or get over the death of a child. You just learn to live with it.”

“Fortunately, Anita now fills my days,” she continued. “I was dead for three years from Aless’ death until Anita was born… Life is a breath of fresh air.”

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