Lalla Latifa Hammou is the widow of king Hassan II and the mother of Princess Lalla Meryem, King Mohammed VI, Princess Lalla Asma, Princess Lalla Hasna and Prince Moulay Rachid.(27 March 1989). Royal Treat for Maggie, Evening Times Although she never held the title of "Queen," she is referred to using terms such as "mother of the royal children". The privacy accorded to her in Morocco is so great that attempts to publish photos her in the Moroccan newspaper Al Ayam have been found to violate Moroccan law (in accord with a 1956 decree prohibiting publication of photos of the king and his family without authorization).

Born Fatima Hammou, but called Latifa (to avoid confusion with her cousin, the king's other wife, the former Lalla Fatima bint Qaid Amhourok), Lalla Latifa is the daughter of a senior Berber

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...

 notable of the Zaiane tribe, related to Mouha ou Hammou Zayani

Mouha ou Hammou Zayani

Mouha Ou Hammou Zayani, by his full name: Mohammed ou Hammou ben Akka ben Ahmed, also known as Amahzoune ben Moussa , was made Caïd of the Zayanes in Khénifra by sultan Moulay Hassan I in 1886...

, and niece of the Kaid

Kaid

A kaid or caïd was a title in the Norman kingdom of Sicily. It applied to palatine officials and members of the curia, usually to those who were Muslims or converts from Islam, often eunuchs, but sometimes to others...

Ould Hassan Amhourak. She married Hassan II in 1961.