Juan Carlos I ended his visit to London yesterday at Stamford Bridge. And he did it with an anecdote: the Emeritus arrived at the stadium an hour before the start of the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal between Chelsea and Real Madrid, coinciding with the arrival of the white team, so his car had to wait until Let the Madrid bus pass. Later, near the main entrance to the box where he witnessed Real Madrid’s pass to the semifinals, Juan Carlos I walked out and a group of fans shouted “Long live Spain!”.
The Emeritus traveled to London with the clear intention of having lunch with King Carlos III, although the very private nature of that meeting made it impossible to confirm it by official sources. Local media with very direct access to the British Royal House, however, took it for granted that it had come to pass.
Hello magazine! he spoke of a “secret lunch” and The Daily Mail referred to the meeting as a “private lunch.” Buckingham Palace said it “does not recognize” the appointment, which did not appear on Carlos III’s agenda, although the formula used does not exactly correspond to a denial.
Nor was there any kind of confirmation from the diplomatic side, although sources close to Juan Carlos I – from where the news of his “stopover” in London on the way to Sanxenxo also came – assured that the announced lunch was still on.
Neither Juan Carlos I nor Sofía initially appear on the list of 2,000 guests for the Coronation of Carlos III scheduled for May 6 (in which Felipe VI and Letizia are). Several British media have left open the possibility that the Emeritus could ultimately attend, although it is unknown if his visit to London is related to that fact.
Thus, the first “sighting” of Juan Carlos I, accompanied by two bodyguards, occurred on Monday night at number 25 Albemarle Street, where the Oswald club has its discreet headquarters, identifiable by the red awnings on its windows and by the the super-luxury cars that parade through the door. He was seen and photographed leaving at 11 p.m. with a small group of friends with whom he is believed to have been having dinner.
Opened in 2017, the Oswald club has had occasional clients including Queen Camilla, Prince William, former “premier” Boris Johnson, Elton John, Madonna and the Beckhams. It was created by Robin Birley, also owner of the 5HS club (on Hertford Street), where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle held their first face-to-face date. The club owes its name to the painter Oswald Birley, great-grandfather of the founder, who has spared no luxuries in its interior, such as Murano glass chandeliers, a profusion of fireplaces and a dome over the terrace of a cigar lounge (all designed by interior designers Tom Bell and Bruce Cavell).
Maternally related to the Goldsmiths, Birley has created a coveted sanctuary for members of the government, powerful donors, show business stars and members of the royal family. Tatler magazine describes it as “the most exclusive of London’s private clubs.”
Despite his high-flying airs, the truth is that the British media received Juan Carlos I with epithets such as “the limping king” (due to his mobility problems) or as the “disgraced” Monarch (due to the battle in the London courts by his former lover Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who accuses him of harassment).
In an article entitled Inside the scandalous life of the former king in exile, The Daily Mail recalls how Juan Carlos I went from being “a hero to the Spanish for his rejection of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco” to accumulating the fame of “adulterer after sleeping with hundreds of women” and starring in multiple financial scandals. The British tabloid recalls the accusations, contained in a book by Pilar Eyre, of an attempt to “approach” Princess Diana when she was 25 years old during a family visit to Mallorca in 1986, along with then-Prince Charles and his sons William and Enrique. .
The Daily Telegraph headlined for its part with the strange bromance or intimate friendship of Juan Carlos I and Carlos III, distant cousins ??and great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria of England. The conservative newspaper recalls how Juan Carlos was one of the few who could affectionately call Queen Elizabeth II Lilibet, whose funeral she attended last September along with Sofía, King Felipe and Queen Letizia.
Enhancing family ties, despite the circumstances, the British monarchy has acted as a “guarantor” of the Emeritus in his occasional return to public life, as in this trip anticipated for weeks that has created more than one headache in Buckingham in the countdown to the Coronation.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
