Antonio de Tudó y Alemany and Catalina Catalán y Luesia
Josefa de Tudó y Catalán, 1st Countess of Castillo Fiel,[note 1] also known as Pepita Tudó (19 May 1779 – 20 September 1869) was the second wife of Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy.
Tudó was born in Cádiz and she was always called "Pepita", a diminutive of Josefa. Her father was a gunner named Antonio de Tudó y Alemany who died when she was young. From the age of sixteen, Pepita and her mother, Catalina Catalán y Luesia, and her sisters, Magdalena and Socorro, lived in the house of Manuel de Godoy, one of the most powerful men in Spain. By 1800, Pepita had become Godoy's mistress.
In 1807, under Godoy's influence, Carlos IV presented Pepita with the title of Countess of Castillo Fiel and Viscountess of Rocafuerte. When María Teresa died in November 1828, Godoy and Pepita could finally marry, even though they had secretly performed a marriage ceremony years earlier. The following year or possibly even that same December, Godoy and Pepita married. The Pope made him 1st Principe di Paserano; however, they moved to Paris in 1832 where they lived in somewhat straitened circumstances. Godoy was later given a pension by Louis Philippe I.
Later, Pepita returned to Spain in hopes of reclaiming the family properties. At ninety years old, Pepita told a reporter that Godoy knew only one true love: Queen María Luisa.
Pepita is considered by many historians to be the model for one of Francisco de Goya's most notorious works, La maja desnuda.
The writer Ceferino Palencia wrote a play called Pepita Tudó, and casting his half-Scottish wife Isabel Oyarzábal Smith in the titular role in the 1930s.
^Name in full: Spanish: Doña Josefa Petra Francisca de Paula de Tudó y Catalán, Alemany y Luesia, primera condesa de Castillo Fiel, primera vizcondesa de Rocafuerte.
