Guinness World Records confirms world’s oldest living person is a US-born Spanish woman

The world’s oldest living person is a Spanish woman born in the United States, according to Guinness World Records (GWR).

María Branyas Morera is 115 years and 328 days old and is now confirmed to be the world’s oldest woman living and oldest person living, according to a press release by GWR on Thursday.

It follows the death of 118-year-old French nun Lucile Randon who died on January 17.

“I am old, very old, but not an idiot,” reads the Twitter bio of María Branyas Morera.

In a series of tweets in Catalan on Saturday, María Branyas Morera said she was “surprised and grateful” for the interest generated by becoming the oldest living person in the world but that the last days had been “stressful” and that she would not be giving any more interviews.

“I need peace and tranquility. (…) I have lived in the Tura Residence for 22 years and I do not want the day-to-day life of the residents or the staff who take care of us to change,” she tweeted.

According to GWR, she was born in San Francisco, California, on 4 March 1907, one year after her parents emigrated to the country. Eight years later, they decided to return to Spain, where they settled in Catalonia.

María has called the region home ever since. She has resided in the same nursing home – Residència Santa María del Tura – for the past 22 years.

“She is in good health and continues to be surprised and grateful for the attention that this anniversary has generated,” the home said in a statement on Thursday.

She has survived World Wars, the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish Flu pandemic, and COVID-19 in 2020.

GWR says she contracted the virus a few weeks after celebrating her 113th birthday but managed to make a full recovery within a few days.

María has three children, 11 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.