Former Olympic handball medal winner, Iñaki Urdangarin was once the dashing favorite of the Spanish royal family after he married former King Juan Carlos’ youngest daughter, Princess Cristina.
Yet, 24 years after their fairytale wedding in Madrid, this image of marital bliss lay in ruins after Urdangarin was photographed hand-in-hand with a woman who was not his wife.
Days after the images appeared in the magazine Lecturas, Princess Cristina and Urdangarin, who have four children, announced their marriage was over.
It was a bitter end to the relationship for the princess who had stayed loyal to Urdangarin even after he was jailed for fraud for exploiting his royal connections to embezzle €6m (£4.99m) in public funds through a sporting foundation based in Mallorca.
Despite rumors of royal pressure to divorce her husband, Princess Cristina stood by her man and became the first member of the royal family to face criminal charges aiding fraud, although she was cleared.
Even after Urdangarin was imprisoned for five years and 10 months for fraud and embezzlement in 2018, she was prepared to dodge the paparazzi cameras to go and visit him in jail.
For the House of Borbón, the royal separation is the latest damaging chapter for a family which has been plagued by a series of sex scandals, court room dramas and allegations of financial corruption, which rival the antics of the British royals.
Spain’s Duke of Palma Inaki Urdangarin and Princess Cristina de Borbon, left, show their daughter Irene in Barcelona, Spain, on June 8, 2005 (Manu Fernandez/AP)
A British judge will shortly decide if Juan Carlos should stand trial at London’s High Court to face allegations by his former lover Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, a London businesswoman, of using the Spanish secret service to harass her.
The 84-year-old ex-monarch, who abdicated in 2014 who now lives in self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi, claims he has sovereign immunity from prosecution in England as he is part of the Spanish royal family.
If Juan Carlos stands trial in London the media spectacle may rival Prince Andrew’s possible court room battle in New York after the Queen’s second son entered his defense in the civil proceedings over sexual abuse allegations brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s decision to move away from royal life and their damaging allegations during a television interview with Oprah Winfrey sent shockwaves through the House of Windsor.
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However, Spain’s royal family, who are distant cousins of the Windsors, have struggled to cope with a series of knocks to a monarchy which has never had the popular support of the British royal family.
Juan Carlos only succeeded to the throne in 1975 after the death of fascist dictator General Francisco Franco because he was anointed as Fanco’s successor.
Spaniards were always known as ‘more Juan Carlistas than monarchistas’, meaning they were not natural supporters of the royal family but did support the king.
When Juan Carlos faced down a failed coup by army officers in 1981, he won over the nation for backing democracy against dictatorship.
His natural charisma won over the Spanish public, despite rumors the king was having a series of extra-marital affairs and allegations he received commissions for brokering foreign business deals for Spanish companies.
Queen Letizia of Spain attends the 13th Luis Carandell Journalism Awards Ceremony at the Spanish Senate in January. Her husband, King Felipe VI favors a slimmed down monarchy and remains a popular royal (Photo: Paolo Blocco/Getty)
In 2012, all this came to a sudden halt when Juan Carlos had to be flown back to Spain from Botswana after he fell and broke his hip during a secret elephant hunt with his blonde former lover Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.
For millions of Spaniards who were struggling to make it to the end of the month during the height of the financial crisis it was too much; Juan Carlos was forced to make a humbling apology.
Two years later, Juan Carlos abdicated, leaving his son, Felipe VI, to save an institution whose popularity had sunk to the lowest point since the restoration of the monarchy in 1975.
Princess Cristina and her husband were embroiled in a financial scandal called the Noos case, named after the foundation set up by Urdangarin.
During the investigation, newspapers were filled with lurid allegations that Urdangarin, the Duke of Palma, had called himself ‘el duque empalmado’ – a Spanish play on words to refer to an erection.
Urdangarin also made sexual jokes about Queen Letizia, which played badly with the public.
King Felipe VI has sought to distance the monarchy from the financial and sexual pecadillos which have plagued the Spanish royals by cutting its budget and banning members of the family from business activities.
Polls have shown the scandals have damaged the image of the monarchy but King Felipe’s popularity remains strong.
Spain’s King Felipe VI remains a popular figure despite corruption allegations that have dogged members of his family (Photo: Mariscal/AFP)
A poll in October for the left-wing Platform of Independent Media found 39.4 per cent of Spaniards would vote in a referendum for a republic while 31 per cent supported the monarchy. The same poll found King Felipe was the most popular member of the royal family.
Spain’s left-wing coalition has discussed introducing a law to regulate the monarchy but it faces opposition from conservative parties in the country’s polarized parliament.
Francisco Javier Álvarez García, an expert on constitutional law at Carlos III University in Madrid, told i: “If you had asked me years ago if there was a chance of introducing a law to regulate the monarchy I would have said it was possible but not any more. The parties are so divided.
“The real problem is we cannot have a republic because there is no-one who is fit to lead the country right now.”
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