Corinna, who had by this time been replaced in favour of a new mistress, began legal action against Juan Carlos. Since then he has only twice returned briefly to his homeland, once for his sister’s funeral and once to take part in a yachting regatta last year. When prosecutors began investigating his finances in 2020, the ex-king seemingly panicked and fled into exile, taking up residence with his friends in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Instead of making things easier for his heir, however, Juan Carlos continued to behave with Bourbon arrogance, embarrassing his family by accepting large amounts of cash from foreign sources that he had failed to disclose in order to avoid paying taxes. (An aptly named real life Don Juan, the monarch was rumoured to have enjoyed relationships with no fewer than 5,000 women during his reign).Īs a result, in 2014, he abdicated in favour of his son Felipe VI. The king’s sky high popularity nosedived as more evidence of his dodgy financial affairs and his astonishing amatory adventures leaked out. The king’s long-suffering wife, Queen Sofia, signalled her disapproval of the scandal by waiting three days before visiting her faithless husband in hospital. His companion was a Danish-born German blonde entrepreneur exotically named Corinna zu Sayn Wittgenstein-Sayn. Moreover, the king was not alone during his jumbo slaughtering trip. Then it was revealed that the jaunt had cost more than €40,000 – a tab mysteriously picked up by a Arab financier. The safari attracted attention because the now ageing monarch fell and broke his hip during it. The king left Spain on an ecologically incorrect trip to shoot elephants on a safari in Botswana at a time when his country was in the throes of an economic crisis, with 50 per cent youth unemployment. The king won universal golden opinions for a wisdom belying his inexperience, and the monarchy hit new heights of public popularity. He legalised leftist parties that Franco had banned, lifted censorship, and in 1981 was instrumental in putting down a military coup by diehard Franco loyalists who had seized Spain’s parliament, the Cortes, and held politicians hostage. Brought up by Franco as almost an adopted son with the aim of perpetuating his dictatorship, instead Juan Carlos lost no time in dismantling the old regime and introducing Spain to the unfamiliar concept of democracy. His Bourbon family had a track record of alienating their subjects, and the king’s grandfather King Alfonso XIII had been forced from his throne to make way for a republic in 1931.īut the new king confounded these dire expectations. When he succeeded Spain’s durable fascist dictator General Franco as head of state in 1975, few thought that Juan Carlos would last for long. ![]() The sad downfall of Juan Carlos should flash a red warning light to our somewhat naive new King ![]() Both families are direct descendants of Queen Victoria, with Spain’s current King Felipe calling our late Queen Elizabeth ‘Aunt Lilibet’ our new monarch reportedly had a private lunch with Felipe’s disgraced dad Juan Carlos only last month. The ties between Spain’s Royal Family and our own are close in blood and warm mutual regard. ![]() As he basks in the warm glow of respect, and even affection, surrounding his coronation this weekend, King Charles should recall the story of his distant cousin and near namesake ex-king Juan Carlos of Spain as a warning of how speedily a popular monarch can go from hero to zero.
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