What does it take to finish your degree at the very top of your class? According to some of Asturias’ brightest young graduates, the secret is quite simple: “Not sleeping.” That answer brought the house down in Oviedo on Friday.
The person who'd asked the question was none other than Spain’s future queen, Princess Leonor.
© Europa Press via Getty ImagesThe crown princess kicked off a busy morning of audiences ahead of the Princess of Asturias Awards by welcoming the winners of the University of Oviedo’s 2025 End-of-Degree Awards. Joining her was her younger sister, Infanta Sofía. Once the formal greetings were out of the way, the two sisters stuck around to chat with the students, trading impressions and advice about university life.
As reported by our sister website, HOLA! Spain, Leonor came to the meeting ready to learn in a peach suit. “How did you get organized so that everything turned out so well? That way I get to take some advice home,” she asked.
"Not sleeping," replied a graduate. The response brought out a laugh from everyone in the room.
Sisters on two campuses
© Getty ImagesThe princesses had plenty in common with their guests. Leonor began her Political Science degree at Madrid’s Universidad Carlos III this past September, while Sofía is in her second year of Political Science and International Relations at Forward College in Paris. Still, the heir to the throne was quick to admit that, when it comes to campus life, she’s very much the newcomer of the group. “They know more about university life than I do... I’m still just getting started,” she joked.
Sofía, for her part, was curious about what the graduates are up to now that their degrees are behind them. She opted for a darker suit, with her hair styled slightly wavy, like her sisters. It made for a lighthearted, easygoing exchange between students, and it’s already one of the most charming moments of this year’s Princess of Asturias Awards.
Over the course of the morning, the royal sisters received the recipients of the 2026 Medals of Asturias and this year’s Favorite Sons and Daughters and Adopted Sons and Daughters of the region, along with the laureates of the 2026 Princess of Asturias Awards.
© Getty ImagesLeonor makes her solo debut for the first time
That morning, Leonor made her way to the Salón Covadonga at Oviedo’s Hotel de la Reconquista to receive the 2026 Princess of Asturias laureates. This time, she did it entirely on her own. It was the first time the princess hosted the audience solo, a role her parents have filled in years past, and the latest sign that the awards bearing her title are steadily becoming hers.
The morning gathering doesn’t carry the pomp of the evening’s awards ceremony, but it has become one of the warmest and most revealing moments of the week, a chance for real conversation with the honorees. They are, as King Felipe VI has noted in speech after speech, role models who embody the universal values that push humanity forward. This year, it fell to his daughter to welcome them.
© AFP via Getty Images
