It’s a Christmas present that Spain’s royals don’t necessarily want to find beneath their tree this festive season. King Juan Carlos has written a memoir and it’s hitting shops at the start of December.
Juan Carlos, who brought Spain out of dictatorship and into democracy before falling from grace, has told his side of his story in a much anticipated book.
Publishers, Planeta, have now confirmed it will be available to buy in the first week of December.
It’s called ‘Reconciliation’ although whether it leads to warmer relations with his own family remains to be seen.
The former monarch has written the book in conjunction with Laurence Debray, a friend of his who has also published another work on Juan Carlos called ”My Fallen King”.
King Juan Carlos has lived in self imposed exile in Abu Dhabi since 2020. He left Spain unexpectedly after a series of financial scandals that destroyed his reputation and rocked his royal family.
Since then, he has had few known meeting with his son and successor, King Felipe VI, although his two daughters, Infanta Elena and Infanta Cristina, are known to visit him in his new home. His relationship with his wife, Queen Sofia, is also estranged.
Advance publicity for the book says it will look at the king’s ”errors” and ”poor decisions” and try to explain them. When the book was announced, it was reported that the king wanted to get everything into the open to tell his story his own way.
He is said to have thought long and hard about publishing his memoirs and says it meant going against the advice of his own father, Juan, Count of Barcelona, who told him ”kings don’t confess….and even less so publicly.
However, Juan Carlos says in the book ”why do I disobey him today? Because I feel my history is being stolen.”
His publishers, Planeta, said that ”mistakes have ended up overshadowing his story and his fundamental contributions to the success of Spanish democracy.”
The book will come out just a few weeks after Spain marks 50 years since the moment that began the reign of Juan Carlos. He took the throne on November 20 1975 on the death of the fascist dictator, Francisco Franco. He had nominated Juan Carlos as his successor in the expectation that he would head a continuation of his regime. Instead, Juan Carlos began working with politicians to restore democracy and Spain gained its new constitution in 1978.
However, events to mark the half century anniversary have focused on the death of Franco rather than the contribution of Juan Carlos and it currently seems unlikely he will be invited to any occasions held for the 50 years.
Instead, just days later, his own story will come out. Since Juan Carlos abdicated in favour of his son, Felipe VI, in 2010, the Spanish royal family has rebuilt some of its reputation and the younger generation, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia, are particularly popular.
Now, the family finds itself in the spotlight again as King Juan Carlos speaks out.
