Fiona Govan
SPAIN’S ex-King Juan Carlos will return to his former realm this weekend for the first visit since he fled into self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi in August 2020.
The scandal-hit monarch will attend a yachting regatta in Sanxenxo in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia at the weekend, according to an unconfirmed report by Onda Cero.
After attending the regatta, in which his yacht is competing in the Six Metre Spanish Cup, he will reportedly travel to Madrid to meet with his son King Felipe VI at Zarzuela Palace.
The ex-head of state who abdicated in favour of his son in 2014 left Spain in the wake of a series of damaging financial scandals.
In a letter made public by the Casa Real, Juan Carlos said at the time that he was leaving Spain because of the “public repercussions of certain episodes of my private life”.
The return to his homeland comes after a judicial investigation into the secret fortune of Juan Carlos was shelved on technical grounds, despite finding that the former king had evaded more than €50 million (£42 million) in tax by failing to declare offshore accounts.
Earlier this year prosecutors shelved three separate investigations into his financial affairs, citing insufficient evidence, the statute of limitations, and the monarch’s constitutional immunity.
In March 2020, Felipe stripped Juan Carlos of his annual stipend and renounced his own personal inheritance from his father in a bid to distance himself from the scandal.
The 84-year-old is being sued in the London High Court by his former mistress, the Danish businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who claims he used Spain’s spy agency to target and harass her and her children after their five-year relationship ended.
READ MORE:
- High Court in London rejects sovereign immunity for Spain’s Emeritus King, Juan Carlos, over damages claim by ex-mistress
- Corruption probes into former King of Spain, Juan Carlos, dropped due to ‘lack of evidence’
- From hero to zero: The scandalous story of Spain’s royal rogue King Juan Carlos
