What does it talk about, what is missing and when will we read it?

They say that in none of the 500 pages of the imminent biography of Juan Carlos I there is no reference to either Bárbara Rey or Corinna Larsen or Marta Gayá, according to sources familiar with the work. Instead, the story covers his reign and especially the role of the former monarch in 23-F. Days ago, the father of Felipe VI justified the publication of his version of the events with a phrase that supports the maxim that there is no better defense than an attack: “They are stealing my story,” he told the French weekly Point of view.

Only 24 hours after the announcement came to light, images of the former head of state kissing the star came to light, in Holland no less. The scenes and photographs are 30 years old and the facts were known, but the impact has been colossal: practically all the media, including the main news programs of the large general chains and national newspapers, picked up the cover of the Dutch weekly. Private.

The EFE agency reported on the matter in its International section with a news item dated in The Hague: “The magazine publishes some private photographs of the emeritus king Juan Carlos I with the actress Bárbara Rey, filtered by her son, Ángel Cristo Jr., who assures in an interview that it was he who secretly took the snapshots when he was 13 years old, in 1994, at the request of his mother. The photographs show the emeritus and Bárbara Rey on a terrace, while they exchange kisses and hugs.

Private belongs to the newspaper The Telegraph, founded in 1893 and with a current paper circulation of about 350,000 copies daily, in addition to its online version. The publication explains that the actress’s son “shows how his mother used the relationship with the former monarch to stabilize her financial situation” and “used compromising photos to blackmail the king and obtain financial help.” These events have to a certain extent overshadowed the true big news related to the Emeritus, which is the publication of his memoirs announced on Amazon for this month of November 2024, although the alleged author denies that the book is finished and that in Every case would be published on the date set by the protagonist. Other sources postpone the publication until the end of 2025. Laurence Debray is the writer who said that the Emeritus “keep dreaming in French.”

It was no secret that King Juan Carlos was preparing his memoirs since his departure to Abu Dhabi in 2020 and so the weekly specialized in royal houses Point of view advanced, we know that the book prepared by the Stock publishing house is written in the first person, although it is others, perhaps the aforementioned Laurence Debray, who have shaped it: “My father always advised me not to write my memoirs. Kings do not confidences, even less public. Why should I disobey him now? Why have I finally changed my mind? I have the feeling that the story of my own story is being stolen from me,” reflects His Majesty, a resident of Abu Dhabi, under the umbrella. of the suspicious generosity of the sheikhs, where he lives like an emir in the paradise of theocracies, where sumptuousness and privacy allow him if he wishes to take planes wherever he pleases, kill elephants and even a drunken bear but now without any paparazzi take photos of it.

What should be told in a true open-grave biography

It would be interesting if the King said where he wants to die and be buried. Because another unknown is what will happen when he dies, how and where his remains will rest. Without a doubt, the good sense of the vast majority of public opinion indicates that his status as King and head of State should prevail. And the relevance of their work must be taken into account. No matter how many “misdeeds” the facts place in Juan Carlos I’s DEBT, his work in the Transition and his role in one of the high points of the path to Democracy weighs in the HABER column. It is not surprising therefore that, as the consulted sources advance, King Juan Carlos’s book praises, above apparent frivolities, his decisive role in thwarting the coup d’état, his abilities to transform Franco’s dictatorship into the regime we enjoy. for 40 years, and in his International role as a great figure of that new Spain in the World. The note that the editorial provided us with, however, acknowledges “mistakes and bad decisions”, without hiding “anything”, “speaking with an open heart.”

The image of the parallel universe that Juan Carlos de Borbón seeks to dismantle so that they do not steal the story, it includes not only his lovers: the characters who should be in an open grave biography They should also be their valid ones, complicit officials and politicians, if not necessary cooperators, faithful, grateful or profiting businessmen, journalists or figureheads, not to mention the bribes that have fattened a fortune estimated at The New York Times after his abdication ten years ago in 2.3 billion dollars.

“I authorized the CESID devices to hide the King’s dalliances”

But the apparent frivolity of skirt affairs of a man, apparently happily married to Sofia of Greece, is not a trivial matter at the moment when the State apparatus makes the necessary funds available to the head of State (public money extracted from reserved funds) to pay blackmail and keep quiet. mouths. Narcís Serra, Minister of Defense between 1982 and 1991, and Vice President of the Government between 1991 and 1995, and head of the secret services, justified the absurdity like this: “I authorized the CESID devices to hide the King’s dalliances. I do not regret it.” The expense of monitoring and protecting the former monarch on some adventures was paid for by the State. Furthermore, these dalliances could have damaged not only his image and that of the institution he represented but also his own integrity. Because if someone was able to take photos of him without his knowledge, they could have shot him.

Opinions aside, some staunch defenders of Don Juan Carlos seem to ignore the fact that Felipe VI, current head of state, withdrew the assignment to his father, a gesture that honors the current Monarch, but that condemns Don Juan Carlos from the very same moment. Institution that he headed, and therefore more significant than any exoneration from the Courts, whether due to inviolability, by prescription or by regularizing his obligations before the Treasury. On March 15, 2020, Don Felipe renounced his inheritance and withdrew the allowance to his father (set at 194,232 euros in 2018). With this unprecedented decision, and in line with its transparency policy, it broke ties with any activity that Don Juan Carlos had outside of Spain, such as the alleged collection of 100 million dollars from Saudi Arabia. The Crown “must preserve its prestige” and “observe upright conduct,” he stressed.

Reconciliation

There are those who put it to the credit of Don Juan Carlos that he somehow deceived Franco, by untying for the good of Spain and the Spanish people what the dictator said he left tied and well tied; or who excuses that many years before he was disloyal to his father, Don Juan, or who is condescending to his affairs because he is a human being, and therefore is understanding that he deceived the mother of his children for decades. But hiding the truth from his firstborn and his subjects are big words. Maybe that’s why it’s interesting to analyze the title of the biography: Reconciliation. Ruled out that it refers to his marriage with Doña Sofía, it would be logical to think that King Juan Carlos could refer to the Reconciliation of the two Spains. Peace. It would also be an option to baptize the work with that title, not exclusive with the other, which, on the verge of turning 87, sought with its version of the events to regain the favor of the Spanish, a decade after abdicating to his son. for the reasons we all think we know. But the leak of the registration of a foundation in Abu Dhabi does not seem to indicate that the King, who has not apologized since the Botswana hunt, shows any intention of the amendment.

Laurence Debray, author of My King (Debate) has been in Sanxenxo to encourage the Emeritus in the Regattas. A confessed admirer of the Emeritus, this Franco-Venezuelan, of communist parents and friends of Che Guevara, has not confirmed that her new biography will be published at least until His Majesty decides. This is the same thing that Carlos Herrera, who was also preparing a book, told us for the first time, until in 2023, after several trips to Abu Dhabi to meet with Don Juan Carlos, he put the work on hold. We also published exclusively that His Majesty was requesting documents and data from 23-F for a long time.

The least important thing are the photographs that have distracted us this hot week, which began with the announcement of the biography, became twisted with the images of the former tamer’s kisses, got wet with the Sanxenxo regattas and was decorated with dessert with the unappealable meeting of a man with his son and granddaughter. And with her daughter-in-law.