Tarnished jewels in the crown
ROYAL manhunts are few and far between but Spain’s former monarch King Juan Carlos I sparked a bit of a do after announcing he was leaving the country - before vanishing.
Media speculation was rife. Popular rumour was that he had hot-footed it to the Caribbean and the Dominican Republic.
Through PM Pedro Sanchez, the government in Madrid said they had no details of his whereabouts and the Spanish royal family remained tightlipped.
And then up he popped up in Abu Dhabi, snapped arriving in the United Arab Emirates and reportedly kipping down in the Emirates Palace hotel - which has a galaxy of stars rating - and where a suite costs something like £10,000-anight to rest a weary head. The royal was said to have taken over a whole floor.
Fans of television series The Crown might hope for a Spanish version, hopefully with subtitles, although there is already plenty of new material available for screen writers to interpret with the current goings on involving a certain book and a Tinseltown view of the British royals and The Firm from Harry and Meghan Sussex.
Both sagas will have the picture editors at ‘Hola!’ and ‘Hello!’ in a bit of a tizz about the line to take and front cover photos. Can they cope with ‘hero to zero’ stories?
Juan Carlos - who retains the honorary title of ‘King’ - became a gilt-edged copper bottom winner after the restoration of the monarchy, stepping up to the mark after the death of General Franco and restoring democracy to Spain back in 1975.
He was there again in 1981 when there was an attempted coup in parliament by Civil Guard officers, playing a crucial role disarming a potential bombshell. As constitutional monarchy evolved, his role was increasingly ceremonial but his approval rating, according to the Spanish media, soared.
CRISIS
The financial crisis hit Spain in 2012; Juan Carlos said the thought of the devastating rates of unemployment amongst the young meant he could not sleep at night. Soon he was ensuring elephants would sleep forever as he went on a hunting safari, photographed standing next to corpses of the leviathans. The PR who advised releasing the pictures of the royal alongside the bodies is now known as ‘Dumbo’ (possibly).
He stood down in favour of his son, now King Felipe VI, in 2014. However, recently there has been widespread publicity about a mistress and financial irregularities, a sex and Swiss bank account scandal - and weeks ahead of this month’s announcement he was leaving, the former king’s name has been embroiled with allegations of corruption over business dealings with Saudi Arabia.
And if it is an ‘annus horribilis’ for Spain, it’s not all fun and games for the British Royal Family as it deals with the fallout from defection of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Not only do the Hollywoodbased Mr and Mrs Windsor regularly like to appear as the first ‘woke’ couple in regular interviews; they also attract headlines as they launch legal cases left, right and centre... even young Archie is at it, getting an advance on his pocket money to pay top lawyers in a privacy case.
Hitting the shelves this week is a new royal blockbuster called ‘Finding Freedom’
and subtitled: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family; boasting it would correct the misconceptions that have ‘plagued’ the royal couple.
Cast your minds back a while. Harry was the cheeky chap, the Buck House joker in the pack, the politically incorrect spare to the heir - and then his star climbed high: military hero, organiser of the Invictus Games... overall good egg. There was a modern fairytale wedding at Windsor, the young members of The Firm were on a mission to modernise the royals for a new future.
Sadly, it seems to have crashed and burned. Princes William and Harry - and their wives - were said to have fallen out big time. A rift wider than the Atlantic the Sussex’s put between themselves and their UK family.
They claim not to have collaborated with the authors in the writing of said book but there are some pretty detailed reports of conversations and meetings; it is not even necessary to read it, Her Majesty’s Press are having fun lifting incidents for your enjoyment.
According to some critics, it comes across as privileged people having a hissy fit, stamping their respective feet and loudly whining. Brat behaviour with a tiara... actually, there seems to be rather a lot about a tiara, hairdressers and ‘the truth’ about that Windsor wedding.