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Spain’s Juan Carlos: from democracy’s royal hero to exile by scandal

For years, he was the king who led Spain to democracy and foiled a military coup, but he later fled into exile under a cloud of corruption that ruined his royal legacy.

But the 84-year-old, who played a determining role in Spain’s transition to democracy, could soon be coming home after Spanish prosecutors on Wednesday dropped three investigations into his finances.

He took the throne in November 1975 within days of the death of General Francisco Franco, who named him as successor, passing over the young king’s father, Juan de Borbon.

Once crowned, it became clear he had no plans to extend the late dictator’s despotic rule, ushering in a parliamentary monarchy and free elections and winning acclaim as “king of all Spaniards”.

But after nearly 40 years on the throne, it was scandal that prompted his fall from grace, forcing him first to abdicate in 2014 and six years later to flee to the United Arab Emirates, dogged by allegations of financial corruption.

“Guided by my determination to best serve the people of Spain, its institutions, and you as king, I inform you of my decision to go into exile outside Spain,” he wrote in August 2020, the one-time hero of democracy now an embarrassment to crown and country.

– ‘Hero who saved democracy’ –

His exile was a bitter irony for one who had been born in exile in Rome on January 5, 1938, and who only arrived in Spain when he was 10.

Despite the family’s exile, Juan Carlos’ father entrusted the boy to Franco in the hope that the throne would one day return to House of Bourbon.

After school, the young prince underwent several years of military training and was later named Franco’s official heir, with the expectation he would one day carry on the dictator’s policies.

But he was to disappoint Franco’s followers, instead steering Spain towards democracy and ultimately using his military standing to defend it against an attempted coup in February 1981 when a group of soldiers stormed parliament, taking lawmakers hostage.

Appearing on television in full military regalia in the middle of the night, he ordered the coup plotters back to their barracks, in a move that cemented his image as a symbol of stability and the “hero who saved democracy”.

The king’s easy-going manner quickly endeared him to the people with his popularity peaking in 1992 during the Barcelona Olympics and the Seville World Fair as the nation turned a blind eye to his countless affairs and shady business deals.

But 20 years later, the public esteem would give way to ignominy as a string of financial excesses and impropriety soured his image in the public eye.

– The elephant and the mistress –

It was during the global financial crisis with Spain mired in recession that the public discovered he’d taken a luxury elephant-hunting trip to Botswana with Corinna Larsen, a German-born entrepreneur with whom he’d had a 10-year affair.

Details only emerged after he broke his hip and was flown home for surgery, prompting him to publicly apologise.

But the damage was done, prompting more and more revelations about his lavish lifestyle and how he had amassed a secret fortune abroad, thanks to his close relations with monarchs in the Gulf.

Several years after his 2014 abdication, Spanish and Swiss investigators launched a probe into the former monarch’s finances, focusing on an alleged payment of $100 million (90 million euros) he received from Saudi Arabia via an offshore account.

And further investigations followed which sullied the image of Spain’s monarchy.

As the scent of scandal intensified, his son, King Felipe VI, moved to distance himself from his father, stripping him of his annual palace allowance.

He also renounced any claim on the inheritance he was due to receive from his elderly father.

– A passionate hunter –

A keen sportsman with a fondness for hunting, skiing and sailing, Juan Carlos has hit the headlines for other reasons throughout his lifetime, including for several incidents involving a gun.

In 1954, when he was just 18, tragedy struck when he accidentally killed his 14-year-old brother with a shot to the forehead while the pair were playing with a gun in Portugal, according to a biography by British historian Paul Preston.

And in 2006, he was alleged to have shot dead a drunken circus bear during a visit to Russia. And it was his hunting trip to Botswana in 2012 that marked the beginning of the end.

Married to Sophia of Greece and Denmark in 1962, the couple had two daughters before giving birth to Felipe but Spain maintains the right of the first-born son to inherit the throne.