Spain’s self-exiled former king, Juan Carlos, has angered the country’s royal household with a video message released just as his highly awaited memoirs go on sale in the country.
Juan Carlos (87), abdicated in 2014 and has been living abroad since 2020, due to a series of scandals.
On Monday, he posted on YouTube a video message, addressed to “young Spaniards”, in which he highlighted the role his generation had played in the transition to democracy following the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
In it, Juan Carlos said that he and other older generations of Spaniards “managed to achieve an exemplary transition, change this country in very difficult circumstances in which we all had to make an effort and take risks”.
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However, the video appears to have taken the royal household by surprise and sources within it told the media that the recorded message was “neither appropriate nor necessary”.
Juan Carlos took the throne days after Gen Franco’s death and was seen as instrumental in the introduction of parliamentary democracy, making him a highly popular figure. However, revelations that he had been elephant hunting in Botswana with his mistress, Corrina zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, in 2012, during an economic crisis, severely tarnished his image and contributed to his decision to abdicate two years later.
Scandals surrounding his financial affairs caused further damage, including a gift of €65 million he had made to Ms Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, leading to an investigation into the money’s provenance.
Another investigation looked into an offshore bank account held by Juan Carlos in Jersey and he moved to Abu Dhabi in 2020 in an effort to escape the mounting scrutiny. The investigations into his finances have been shelved but the former monarch remains in the United Arab Emirates, only visiting Spain occasionally.
He was in Madrid last month, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his accession to the throne.
Despite his praise for the democratic transition, Juan Carlos seems to have recorded his video message, which is only 94 seconds long, primarily as a promotional tool for his memoirs. The book, ghostwritten by French journalist Laurence Debray, was published in France last month and is due to go on sale in Spain on Wednesday.
“I have made the effort of writing my memoirs so that your parents can remember historic moments and so that you can get to know the recent history of your country, without self-interested distortions,” he tells viewers.
In the book, Juan Carlos acknowledges mistakes in his private life, including “slip-ups” regarding his relationship with his wife, Queen Sofía, and he speaks fondly at times of Gen Franco. He also recounts telling his son, King Felipe: “Don’t forget that you’re inheriting a political system that I shaped.”
