The Biggest Skeletons In The Spanish Royal Family's Closet

Spain is the last Spanish-speaking country in the world to have a monarchy, with a royal history that dates back to the 16th century. However, the monarchy was dissolved in 1931 which led to a voluntary exile of the royal family. That is, until 1975, when the Spanish throne was re-established and Juan Carlos I was crowned Spain's new king.

For many decades, King Juan Carlos and his family enjoyed high approval ratings and he was viewed as the ruler who reinvented Spain after a decades-long dictatorship and who ushered the nation into a new era. But in recent years a string of royal scandals caused the public approval of the monarchy to drop significantly and now 40% of Spain favors re-establishing a republic, according to Reuters. Since Juan Carlos's abdication in 2014, his son King Felipe VI has worked to regain the trust of the public.

For many years, a "pact of silence" between the royal family and the Spanish media prevented details of their personal lives from being scrutinized, but over the course of the past ten years, that pact has lost its power and some less than savory facts have come to light. Let's take a closer look at the biggest skeletons in the Spanish royal family's closet.

After the elephant incident, King Juan Carlos I was subjected to more scrutiny than ever before and it came to light that the king had spent an exorbitant amount of money on his yacht, much to the dismay of taxpayers. As mentioned above, Spain was going through some economic hardship in the early 2010s, so when the king was galavanting around the world on safaris and spending time on his expensive yacht, the unrest amongst Spanish civilians continued to increase as they began to wonder if their taxes were being used efficiently. One citizen told NPR, "I'm totally against it...because why should I pay for their food, their clothes, their jewelry? I don't want to pay them."

As disapproving of the royal family's opulent lifestyle became the growing consensus, Juan Carlos decided to give up the $27 million yacht. But this "gesture of frugality," as The Guardian called it, turned into another scandal when the crew of the ship claimed they were illegally dismissed and sued for over $1 million. During court proceedings, it was revealed that the captain of the yacht had been earning more than the prime minister. It became clear the king's priorities differed from that of the public.

It has long been rumored that King Juan Carlos I had his fair share of extramarital affairs during his reign, but just to what extent is hard to say. It's been reported the monarch had thousands of trysts in his lifetime, which was explained in greater detail in the book "Juan Carlos: The King of 5,000 Lovers" by Martinez Ingles, a military historian and essayist. Per the Daily Mail, the author claims it is the "true story of an amoral king, unscrupulous, shameless, ambitious, authoritarian, authentic sexual predator." The book unpacks tales of his supposed affairs, like the time he allegedly hit on Princess Diana or paid a Miss World contestant $2.5 million to keep her relations with him a secret. According to The Sun, that money came from taxpayers.

Apparently Juan Carlos's affairs were seen as a major problem by the government. In 2021, The Times reported that former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo claimed that the Spanish Secret Service injected Juan Carlos with female hormones and testosterone inhibitors to try to curb his sex drive. Villarejo, who was being tried for corruption, made the allegation during a parliamentary hearing. None of this, however, has ever been confirmed.

Juan Carlos was born in exile and at 82, returned to exile. In 2020, the ex-king who had abdicated his throne to his son Felipe VI decided to leave the country after corruption allegations spurned when reports came out that the former king was under investigation for money laundering, per the New York Post. In a letter to his son (via CNN), the former monarch explained his disappearance, saying, "In the face of the public repercussion that certain past events of my private life are generating, I wish to express to you my utmost availability to contribute the facilitation of the execution of your functions, from the tranquility that requires your position of high responsibility. ... Now, guided by the conviction to perform the best service to the Spanish people, their institutions and you as King, I am communicating my thoughtful decision to move, at this time, outside of Spain." He clearly knew his endless scandals were degrading the crown and preventing his son from preserving the monarchy.

Two years later, in 2022, the investigations were dropped when the prosecutor noted that even if he could prove the allegations (which he apparently couldn't) "Juan Carlos would have had constitutional immunity as a monarch at the time," according to Reuters. With the case dropped and two years of silence from the former king, he was able to return to his home country and be close to his family once again.

Juan Carlos I's extramarital relationship with Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was rumored for years though the press had never officially reported on it due to the aforementioned "pact of silence." However, when the king at the time was hurt in a hunting accident in Botswana and it was revealed that Sayn-Wittgenstein was accompanying him, it became apparent to the public that the Danish businesswoman was, in fact, a mistress of the king. According to the BBC, she was in a relationship with the monarch from 1975 to 2014. She claims, however, that ever since the Botswana incident she has been spied on by government officials and harassed by the monarchy.

She was allegedly surveilled constantly and blamed a home break-in on spies. "Following the Botswana trip and from conversations with the King Emeritus [Juan Carlos] and his entourage, it became clear to me that I was being perceived not only as persona non grata but also as a threat to the Royal Family," she explained in an affidavit (via the BBC). According to the Daily Mail, after she and Juan Carlos broke up, he demanded she return €65 million he had given her as a gift, a sum that played a huge part in the corruption case against him that led to his exile in 2020. Sayn-Wittgenstein ended up suing Juan Carlos for mental distress brought on by the alleged harassment, per the AP.

If the rumors are true that King Juan Carlos I really did have 5,000 lovers in his lifetime, then it shouldn't be shocking to find out that he possibly had a love child or two or even 200. But none have ever been confirmed. One particular claim, however, received a decent amount of media coverage in 2021. Albert Solà Jimenez, a waiter in northeastern part of Spain, claimed to be the illegitimate first-born child of the former king and his evidence wasn't that far-fetched. According to The New York Times, a DNA test had been compared to a Belgian woman who had also made claims about being Juan Carlos's child and the test results revealed they were likely half-siblings. "Albert's case is feasible since in that time, when a woman became pregnant with an illegitimate child, you hid the children and gave them to other families," author María José Esteso Poves explained to the news outlet.

If his claim were true, it would make him the oldest of Juan Carlos' children and the rightful heir to the throne (if the king had claimed him). The owner of the bar he worked at noted, "For a small town like La Bisbal, this is something big...That the waiter of El Drac is the legitimate king." His claims were never confirmed and a year after the story was published, Jimenez suddenly died, according to the Daily Mail.