Juan Carlos I of Spain
Mixing historical episodes with reflections on his own scandals, King Emeritus Juan Carlos I of Spain seeks to reconcile with his family and country in his memoirs, where he relives remarkable episodes of one of the last living figures in European political history of the 20th century.
And hand that held Franco’s on his deathbed at the moment when he was essential to stop a coup d’étatthe 87-year-old former monarch revisits decisive episodes in Spain’s recent history in a 500-page book entitled “Réconciliation”.
In the work, he also seeks to get closer to the son he left behind, the King Philip VI, facing at the same time loneliness and the weight of their own guilt — from accidental death of brotherin childhood, until the sentimental and financial “mistakes” that pushed him into exile at an advanced age.
“There isn’t a single day that goes by that nostalgia doesn’t invade me.“, writes the monarch from Abu Dhabi, where he went into exile, in the book published this Wednesday in French and with an edition in Spanish scheduled for next month. “It’s as if he had Spain under the skin“.
Franco and the transition
Chosen by Francisco Franco to succeed him, Juan Carlos is widely recognized as the man who led Spain to democracy after the dictator’s death in 1975, says the .
He remembers the moment he sat next to the dying Franco, who treated him almost like a son, and heard his last words: “He took my hand and said, with his last breath: Your Highness, I only ask one thing: keep the country together”.
“I had carte blanche to move forward with the reforms, as long as the unity of Spain was not jeopardized”, writes the former king.
It also evokes the episode of February 23, 1981when he donned a general’s uniform and appeared on television order the rebellious military to return to their barracks, thus stopping the coup d’état attempted by lieutenant colonel Antonio Tejero Molinawho burst into the Spanish Parliament, at the head of 200 civil guards.
For Laurence Debray, the French writer who co-authored the book, Juan Carlos’ life is a unique European story. “He is one of the last living leaders of the generation that lived through the Second World War”, he says. “Although many see him as a happy man, He was always very lonely — divided from an early age between the family and Franco.”
Scandals and downfalls
In 2012, the king fractured his hip while hunting in Botswanaa trip on which he was accompanied by his then lover, — an extravagance that outraged the country, still grappling with the economic crisis.
“I can’t stop talking about this episode, because it had a disastrous impact on my reign and my destiny”, he admits. It says “bitterly” regret of the relationship, which, along with the legal process brought by Larsen, left him “a wounded man”. A few months later, in 2014, .
In the memoirs, he also addresses the 100 million dollar donation controversy which he received from the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Accepting this money, he recognizes, was “a serious mistake”.
When the donation became public, in 2020, he decided to settle in the United Arab Emirates so as not to compromise his son’s reign.
Queen Sofia remained in Madrid.
“I deeply regret that my wife never came to visit me“, he writes. “I suspect he doesn’t so as not to create tension with our son“.
Diana and the rumors
The former king of Spain also addresses persistent rumors about alleged extramarital relationswhich he describes as “mostly pure fiction”.
Among these rumors, the former king of Spain categorically denies a supposed connection with Princess Dianawhom he describes as “cold, reserved, distant — except when there were cameras nearby”.
Between 1986 and 1990, the Marivent Palace, in Mallorca, was the scene of intense media curiositywhen the then Prince Charles (now King Charles III) and the Princess of Wales spent their holidays there at the invitation of Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.
According to Vanity Fair España, the rumors gained strength in 1992 after the publication of the book “Diana in Private: The Princess Nobody Knows”, by biographer and aristocrat Lady Colin Campbell, who stated that, during those summers in Marivent, Diana would have made Juan Carlos her “confidant”.
Tragedies and regrets
“Réconciliation” also retreats to the lonely childhood of the future monarchtaken to Spain at the age of ten, coming from family exile in Portugalthere, and placed below to protect Franco.
The king remembers the death of younger brother, Afonso, shot during a game with a pistol at the family home in Estoril, in 1956 — an accident never fully clarified.
“We had removed the magazine and didn’t realize there was a bullet left in the chamber. The shot ricocheted and hit my brother in the face.“, he reports.
Debray, who lived in Abu Dhabi for two years to interview him and write the book, considers the work “quite direct” in its confessions. “He admits that there are things he regrets,” the writer told AFP. “AND History with a capital H — told from within, through the voice of those who lived it.”
Today, Juan Carlos writes that he wants “” and to reconcile with his son. “I want to be buried in my homelandwith due honors”, says the former monarch.
