![]() She said Juan Carlos received commissions on commercial contracts in the Arab World and had used her name to hide real-estate assets and Swiss bank accounts. Then secretly recorded conversations Corinna had with a former police chief were made public. A newspaper called it “the photo of shame”. Late last year a photo showed him at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Mohammed Bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince accused of ordering the murder of the exiled journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He is still, however, a regular customer at top restaurants. He took the safari with a German princess, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, his former mistress, while Spain was suffering under austerity measures.Īn embezzlement scandal involving Cristina, his daughter, and son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin, who is now in prison, further reduced his popularity, which led to a reduction in his public engagements. Juan Carlos’s disastrous elephant hunting expedition in Botswana in 2012 led to his abdication in 2014. He is widely credited with safeguarding the transition to democracy, helping to put down a coup in 1981 by appealing to military chiefs for support and making a key television address.īut the royal scandals reawakened Spain’s republican sympathies, leading to calls from the left-wing Podemos party for a referendum on the monarchy. Juan Carlos launched Spain’s democratic transition after the dictator’s death in 1975 and was proclaimed king two days afterwards. His family was kept in exile by fascist dictator Francisco Franco and when he was 18, Juan Carlos “accidentally” shot dead his younger brother, Alfonso, at the family’s home in Portugal. ![]() ![]() Last week the 81-year-old wrote to his son that it was time to “start a new chapter in my life and complete my retirement from public life”. Since his son, Felipe, took the crown, Juan Carlos de Borbón has endured humiliation and ill health and was denied an invitation to yesterday’s Armed Forces Day in Seville. Since he ascended to the throne, Felipe has distanced himself from Juan Carlos in a bid to try and restore the monarchy's image.Spain’s former king is retiring from public life today (Sunday) at a bullfight south of Madrid five years after his reign ended in abdication and revelations about his personal life. Juan Carlos was for decades revered for his role in steering Spain to democracy following dictator Francisco Franco's death in 1975.īut damaging scandals over his finances and private life forced him to abdicate after nearly 40 years on the throne. Juan Carlos and the late queen were distant cousins - their shared great-great grandmother was Queen Victoria - and Felipe called the monarch "Aunt Lilibet". "The head of state is clearly King Felipe VI" while the former monarch "is in London in response to an invitation in a personal capacity", Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told reporters. The former king was invited by the British government, prompting officials in Madrid to insist that Spain's official representative was Felipe. The two couples arrived separately at the abbey but were seated together in a section, close to the coffin, reserved for royal families.įelipe wore military uniform while Juan Carlos dressed in a dark suit. The father and son were last seen together in public in January 2020 for the funeral of a sister of Juan Carlos, an aunt of the king.
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