Book of memories of King Juan Carlos I, father of Felipe VI, entitled Reconciliationarrives on Wednesday in Spanish bookstores, almost a month after its publication in France, It is a work in which he reviews his life since his birth in exile in Rome on January 5, 1938.
This memoir is narrated in the first person Published by Planeta Publishing House The content of which has already filled the pages of newspapers and hours of discussions on Spanish radio and television, after the publication of the French version on November 5.
In this book, Juan Carlos I, 87 years old and retired in Abu Dhabi, claims his democratic “heritage” for Spain, a country he misses and would like to return to. After half a century of parliamentary monarchy.
The former head of state is considered one of the architects of the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco (1975), whom he appointed as his successor.
But after decades of popularity, he left Spain in 2020 and settled in Abu Dhabi, after the scandal became known about the relationship he had with Corinna Larsen and also about his ownership of part of his assets abroad, even though the Public Prosecution archived the investigations because the events ended or occurred before 2014. When he was protected by inviolability as head of state.
The book is dedicated to his family (except Queen Letizia) And to everyone who accompanied him in the democratic transition; In the introduction, he explains his decision to write his memoirs because he feels that his story was “stolen.”
Although he says he has made “mistakes” and is not a “saint,” he defends his heritage for the country he arrived in when he was only 10 years old (he lived with his family in Portugal, where they were exiled). To learn from Franco, who does not hide his sympathy for him.
He admits to the existence of “emotional deviations” about which he hardly provides details, but he asserts that “most” of the “extramarital affairs” attributed to him are “completely imaginary.”
Without martyrdom Former head of state Corinna Larsen confirms that “a certain relationship” was “skillfully exploited”Which had “disastrous consequences for his reign.”
After publishing these memoirs in France, Juan Carlos I gave several interviews to French newspapers and France 3 television, in which he spoke He admitted that he made “mistakes” But he said that he does not regret his past and does not feel remorse or try to “get rid of it,” although if he could go back, he would be more careful.