Rizal had romantic relationships with several women throughout his life, both in the Philippines and abroad. Some of the women he courted included Julia, whom he met as a teenager; Segunda Katigbak, his first puppy love; Leonor Valenzuela; and Leonor Rivera, who he loved for 11 years but was unable to marry due to her mother's disapproval. While traveling, he also met Consuelo Ortiga y Rey in Madrid, Gertrude Beckette in London, Nelly Boustead in France, and O Sei San in Japan. Later relationships included Suzanne Jacoby in Brussels and Josephine Bracken while in exile in Dapitan. However, none of these relationships ultimately

4.  Julia
 Segunda Katigbak
 Leonor Valenzuela
 Leonor Rivera
 Consuelo Ortiga
 Gertrude Beckette
 Nelly Boustead
 O Sei San
 Suzanne Jacoby
 Josephine Bracken

15.  Rizal was only 15 when he first saw Julia
by accident in a river in Los Baños a few
days after Easter in 1877. She was
wearing a red wraparound skirt.
 “Julia could not catch the butterfly she
was chasing. Rizal, ever gallant, caught
two,” Trillana wrote.
 Heart beating with strange fondness,
Rizal offered her the butterflies and she
laughed with innocent pleasure.
 He was instantly attracted to her. But for

16. Rizal next met Segunda Katigbak, a
charming girl from Lipa, Batangas.
She was his puppy love, according
to Trillana. Unfortunately, his first
love was engaged to be married to a
town mate- Manuel Luz.

17. After his admiration for a short girl
in the person of Segunda, then came
Leonor Valenzuela, a tall girl from
Pagsanjan. Rizal send her love notes
written in invisible ink, that could
only be deciphered over the warmth
of the lamp or candle. He visited her
on the eve of his departure to Spain

18.  Almost simultaneously, Rizal was meeting another Leonor.
The girl, Leonor Rivera, would be his girlfriend for the next
11 years. The two were distant cousins.
 Rivera was to him his ideal woman, his model for Maria
Clara, one of the main characters in his first novel, “Noli Me
Tangere.” He was ready to marry her. Unfortunately, Rivera’s
mother disliked Rizal who was then earning the reputation of
being a dissident. The two last saw each other before Rizal
left for Spain in May 1882.
 The mother hid from Rivera all the letters that Rizal was
sending from Spain. After a passage of many years, thinking
that Rizal had abandoned her, Rivera sadly consented to
marry Henry Kipping, an Englishman who was her mother’s
choice. Rizal was said to have cried shamelessly when news
of the wedding reached him.
 Rivera never got to know that Rizal loved her just as much

19.  Rizal met Consuelo Ortiga y Rey, the prettier
of Don Pablo Ortiga’s two daughters, in
Madrid. She fell in love with him after only a
few dates. He dedicated to her “A la Senorita
C.O. y R,” which became one of his best
poems.
 The Ortiga's residence in Madrid was
frequented by Rizal and his compatriots. He
probably fell in love with her and Consuelo
apparently asked him for romantic verses. He
suddenly backed out before the relationship
turned into a serious romance, because he
wanted to remain loyal to Leonor Rivera and

20. While Rizal was in London annotating the
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, he boarded in
the house of the Beckett family, within
walking distance of the British Museum.
Gertrude, a blue-eyed and buxom girl was
the oldest of the three Beckett daughters. She
fell in love with Rizal. Tottie helped him in
his painting and sculpture. But Rizal
suddenly left London for Paris to avoid
Gertrude, who was seriously in love with
him. Before leaving London, he was able to

21. Rizal having lost Leonor Rivera, entertained the thought
of courting other ladies. While a guest of the Boustead
family at their residence in the resort city of Biarritz, he
had befriended the two pretty daughters of his host,
Eduardo Boustead. Rizal used to fence with the sisters at
the studio of Juan Luna. Antonio Luna, Juan's brother
and also a frequent visitor of the Bousteads, courted
Nellie but she was deeply infatuated with Rizal. In a
party held by Filipinos in Madrid, a drunken Antonio
Luna uttered unsavory remarks against Nellie Boustead.
This prompted Rizal to challenge Luna into a duel.
Fortunately, Luna apologized to Rizal, thus averting
tragedy for the compatriots.
Their love affair unfortunately did not end in marriage. It
failed because Rizal refused to be converted to the
Protestant faith, as Nellie demanded and Nellie's mother
did not like a physician without enough paying clientele
to be a son-in-law. The lovers, however, parted as good
friends when Rizal left Europe.

22. On his second trip to Europe in
1888, Rizal stopped by Japan where
he met O Sei San, a lovely and
intelligent daughter of a samurai. If
all he wanted was a good life, he
would have married O Sei San and
stayed on in Japan because a
Spanish legation there was offering
him a well-paying job. But he left
Japan because he thought he was
destined for a greater task in the

23. In 1890, Rizal moved to Brussels
because of the high cost of living in
Paris. In Brussels, he lived in the
boarding house of the two Jacoby
sisters. In time, they fell deeply in love
with each other. Suzanne cried when
Rizal left Brussels and wrote him when

24.  While on exile in Dapitan, Zamboanga, in early February
1895, Rizal met an 18-year-old petite Irish girl, with bold blue
eyes, brown hair and a happy disposition. She was Josephine
Bracken, the adopted daughter of George Taufer who had
traveled to Dapitan from Hong Kong to have his eye treated
by Rizal.
 Rizal was immediately attracted to Josephine. He called her
“dulce estranjera,” or sweet foreigner. The loneliness and
boredom of exile may have taken its toll as he found himself
falling in love quite easily. However, Rizal’s sisters suspected
Josephine of being a spy for the Spanish authorities and a
threat to his security.
 Rizal asked Josephine to marry him, but she was not yet ready
to make a decision due to her responsibility to the blind
Taufer. Since Taufer's blindness was untreatable, he left for
Hon Kong on March 1895. Josephine stayed with Rizal’s
family in Manila. Upon her return to Dapitan, Rizal tried to
arrange with Father Antonio Obach for their marriage.