Amid the buzz surrounding Isabel Preysler’s memoirs, with her book ‘Mi historia verdadera’ becoming a publishing and media sensation, the spotlight has once again turned to the key figures in her life. Among them, without a doubt, was her last husband, Miguel Boyer, who passed away on July 24, 2012. As revealed in Preysler’s candid accounts, their marriage faced many challenges and at one point even teetered on the edge of breaking up.
Although Miguel Boyer made history as a prominent politician, serving as Minister of Economy and Finance in Felipe González’s first socialist government, his professional achievements eventually faded into the background. The public was far more interested in his romantic relationship with Isabel Preysler, with whom he had a daughter, Ana, now the wife of well-known tennis player Fernando Verdasco.
Boyer’s personal life was always under close scrutiny. His difficult divorce from his first wife, Elena Arnedo, and complicated relationships with their children, Miguel and Laura, frequently made headlines. In a scandalous interview with El Mundo, his son did not hold back harsh criticism of his father. His daughter Laura, like her mother, died of cancer in February 2023 at just 57 years old. Her ashes rest in Irun, a city to which the Boyer family has deep generational ties. It was here, in 1913, that his mother, Carlota Sáenz de Vicuña, was born.
His mother’s family, deeply Catholic and conservative, was the complete opposite of her future husband’s family — Madrid engineer José Boyer Ruiz-Beneyán, who, like their son Miguel, was an atheist. This starkly contrasted with the beliefs of his stepdaughter, Tamara Falcó, known for her strong religious faith.
During the Civil War, the Boyer-Salvador family was forced to emigrate to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, located in the French part of the Basque Country. It was in this picturesque town that the future minister was born. His father was a close associate of the Second Republic’s president, Manuel Azaña. Political connections also existed on his mother’s side, who came from a noble Riojan family. Miguel Boyer was the grandnephew of Amos Salvador Rodrigáñez, who briefly headed the Ministry of Finance and managed the Bank of Spain. Additionally, he was the great-grandson of Salvador Rodrigáñez, a minister under Alfonso XIII, and the great-great-grandnephew of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, the perennial rival of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo.
After a brief exile, the family returned to Spain and settled in their mansion in Irun, built on an estate in the Lapice neighborhood. The estate, with its three hectares of land, witnessed many family milestones. It was here that Miguel’s mother was baptized, and both he and his brother Agustin received their First Communion. The youngest brother, Christian, was also born in this impressive house. In the 1990s, the mansion was reportedly sold for 600 million pesetas, equivalent to 3.6 million euros.
At the end of that same decade, the family gradually began to sell off the estate’s land. The plots were bought by the municipality for residential development. Today, part of this area is home to Alay Choco Park, covering about 18,000 square meters.
Miguel Boyer began his education in Puertollano, where his father had been stationed for work, and graduated from the French Lyceum in Madrid. Later, he earned degrees in physics and economics from Complutense University. Like his ancestors, he was destined to leave his mark on Spain’s history—and in one way or another, he achieved that goal.
