The relationship between the Royal Family and Catalonia has always been a complex tapestry of affections and distances. While Felipe and Letizia currently make lightning-fast, heavily guarded, and distant visits, journalist Pilar Eyre recalls from her memory a time when Juan Carlos I kept a much closer and, at the same time, much more controversial bond.
A connection that, beyond official events, hid a parallel life that would end up starring in one of the most humiliating episodes for Queen Sofía, precisely in Barcelona.
Eyre, in one of her chronicles on her YouTube channel, takes us to a moment that perfectly defines Zarzuela's hidden dynamics, an event that mixes the seriousness of a medical emergency with the farce of a love triangle. A chapter that shows that, sometimes, palace reality surpasses any fictional script.
A night at the hospital, two women and a king
It was 2011 when King Juan Carlos underwent emergency surgery at Hospital Clínic in Barcelona for a nodule in his lung. The news shocked the country, and all eyes were on the monarch.
However, the great absentee in those first critical hours was none other than his wife, Queen Sofía. While the king was being transported by ambulance and waiting to enter the operating room, it wasn't the queen who was holding his hand, but his then-lover, Corinna Larsen.
Borbones de Catalunya
Pilar Eyre recounts how the media outcry became deafening. The question was in the air and on every television set: "Where is the queen?" The pressure was so great that the Royal Household had to improvise a desperate solution.
Queen Sofía was forced to take a regular commercial flight and rush to Barcelona to stage a normality that didn't exist.
What happened next was an almost cinematic scene: while Queen Sofía was going up in an elevator to address the press, Corinna was discreetly evacuated through another. A crossing of paths that symbolized the collision of two lives at the epicenter of the monarchy.
The most bitter press conference for Queen Sofía
According to Eyre's account, Queen Sofía didn't even enter her husband's room. She went directly to a public relations room to face a small group of journalists. With admirable composure, she stated that "the king is doing very well, the king is great." However, the house of cards collapsed with an unexpected question from a journalist: "What were his first words upon waking up from anesthesia?"
Silence took over the room. Doña Sofía, who had memorized a speech, hadn't prepared that answer. Her gaze urgently sought her then-press chief, Ramón Iribarren, who approached to whisper the answer she should give in her ear.
After the prompt, the queen stated: "The very first thing was to ask about his children, and he thanks you for your interest." She then ended the appearance and returned to Madrid. As soon as the queen's plane took off, Corinna Larsen re-entered the hospital to accompany Juan Carlos during his post-op. The tumor, in the end, turned out to be benign.
Juan Carlos I's relationship with the German woman was the beginning of the end for the monarch. He was about to leave everything for her, but everything changed when it was discovered that he had been on safari in Botswana. In the midst of the crisis, that expense outraged the public and was the first in a series of reports that brought down the king. In 2014, he abdicated in favor of his son, who was crowned Felipe VI.