The emeritus receives the support of his daughter Cristina after the photos with Bárbara Rey

It is still early to measure the collateral damage of the photos of Juan Carlos I and Bárbara Rey kissing. The international impact of the Dutch magazine’s report Privatefacilitated by the star’s son, Ángel Cristo Jr, is halfway there and can go much further. They claim that the Murcian actress has more material from her meetings with the then head of state. Audio and video tapes in different locations that have not yet seen the light of day. This is going to be long. For now, the former head of state has received the support of his daughter, Infanta Cristina, who went to Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) this Monday the 30th to see him, according to local media, including The Pontevedra Newspaper.

This episode has hit Juan Carlos I hard. Although his deteriorated public image and reputation have already been amortized, these photos have fallen like a tinderbox on the relationship he had with his son. A relationship marked in recent years by distance and conditioned by the firewall that Don Felipe imposed with his father so that he would leave Spain in 2020, leave the public scene, let him do his job and cease the reputational damage that his figure caused to the institution.

After years of distance and self-expatriation In Abu Dhabi, father and son had begun to get closer, even showing affection in public. The first time, in January 2023, at the funeral of Constantine of Greece. Now, that path of building bridges has stopped dead. The photos of Bárbara have been joined by the announcement of the emeritus’ memoirs, Reconciliation, written by her friend the French journalist Laurence Debray. How to circumscribe the year that these two episodes have caused in your relationship with Felipe VI?

To begin with, there was a father and son reunion this Friday the 27th in Marín. A meeting that Letizia and Leonor also attended. It was a “brief” and “family” meeting, according to reports from the House. The monarch took the opportunity to convey his discomfort over the latest information related to him and how it negatively affects the crown. The photographs with Bárbara Rey and the memories have cooled the relationship between father and son that had become normalized in recent months. And this also has to do with the emeritus’ wishes to return to Spain. But not to visit, as he has been doing until now, but to stay. This is how he publishes it Confidential Monarchy, which ensures that the emeritus considered Sanxenxo and surrounding areas to be close to his beloved friends and because it was a quiet area. It seems those moving plans will have to wait, at least until the storm clears up.

This Monday the 25th, Infanta Cristina traveled to Sanxenxo to see her father. The former Duchess of Palma visited the emeritus one day after her trip to Athens, where she attended the wedding celebration of her cousin Theodora of Greece.