Ana Obregón is honoring her son's last wish.
The Spanish actress welcomed a baby girl, Ana Sandra Lequio Obregón March 20 in Miami via surrogate. However, as she explained, the newborn is the biological daughter of her late son, Aless Lequio, who died from cancer in May 2020 at 27.
"This baby girl is not my daughter, but my granddaughter," Ana told Hola magazine in an interview published April 5 (translation per Today)."She is Aless' daughter and when she grows up I will tell her that her father was a hero so that she knows who she is and how proud she should be of him."
Ana noted that when her son was first diagnosed with cancer, he froze his sperm before starting chemotherapy, as the National Cancer Institute notes that chemotherapy can impact fertility.
And although he froze his sperm, Aless only told his mother and his father, Alessandro Lequio, "a week before he died," that he wanted Ana to bring his child into the world.
"What people don't know," the 68-year-old continued, "is that this was Aless' last wish: to bring a child into the world."
The Naked Eye star confessed that welcoming Ana Sandra into the world has helped her move forward after the loss of her only child. She noted, "The only thing that has allowed me to continue living every day, every second, is to fulfill the mission of bringing Aless' daughter into the world."
Despite facing backlash in her native Spain where surrogacy is forbidden by law, per Reuters, Ana—who opted for a U.S.-based surrogate—knows the process was worth it.
"I'm happy!," she gushed. "Surrounded by diapers, bottles, all pink, full of bows and smelling like perfume, how wonderful! Also, Aless Lequio loved babies and would go crazy every time he saw one. He told me: ‘I am going to call my first daughter Ana, like you, mommy.'"
As for whether Ana sees herself welcoming more of Aless' children one day? Never say never.
"My son wanted five kids," she told the outlet. "Maybe one day we will have a boy."
And Ana further reflected on what it means to her to fulfill Aless' dying wish.
"I failed my son and I could not save him, but this, which I swore to him with my life, I have done and no one can take that away from me," she continued. "And I don't think there is anyone in the world, when they see this beautiful girl—who was so desired by her father from heaven and by me on earth and by all those who love me—will not think the same way."
She added, "It is something that only fathers or mothers who have lost a child will perfectly understand."