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Juan Carlos I Releases Memoir in France, Calling Saudi Gift a 'Grave Error'

The Royal Household has declined to comment during preparations for the monarchy’s 50th anniversary.

Overview

  • Reconciliación, a 512-page memoir co-written with French author Laurence Debray, went on sale in France via Éditions Stock, with a Spanish edition due on December 3 from Planeta.
  • The book recounts a 2020 rupture in which Felipe VI renounced any inheritance and withdrew his father’s state allocation, prompting Juan Carlos to tell him he “inherits a political system I built.”
  • Juan Carlos admits receiving a $100 million “gift” from the late Saudi King Abdullah, describing it as a grave error while denying it was compensation for favors.
  • He offers personal disclosures alongside a defense of his legacy, discussing his brother’s accidental death, his relationship with Corinna Larsen as a “weakness,” praise for Franco, and his account of opposing the 23-F coup.
  • La Zarzuela has maintained silence; the former king, who has lived in Abu Dhabi since 2020, is in Sanxenxo for a regatta and was left off some formal events linked to the 50th anniversary of the parliamentary monarchy.