Arya News - ”Juan Carlos and (ex-Prince) Andrew were in Kazakhstan together,” Lownie told me.
( NewsNation ) — Spain’s disgraced former king, Juan Carlos, may have a new book out — but it couldn’t come at a worse time for the erstwhile royal.
Juan Carlos releases memoir after scandals
Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014 after a series of financial and personal scandals, has a new memoir out, “Reconciliation,” which, according to the New York Times, “is packed with family grievances, mea culpas and some appreciation for what he calls Franco’s “intelligence and political sense.”
As the paper notes, There was a fair share of self-aggrandizement — ‘I gave freedom to the Spanish people’ — in the hopes of a return to relevance, and perhaps liquidity.”
Here’s what Queen Elizabeth would make of the Prince Andrew drama
But Juan Carlos, who now lives in exile in Abu Dhabi, is still shunned by his family, notably his son, King Felipe, and his ex-wife, the former Queen Sofia, as well as much of the Spanish public.
In the past, Juan Carlos has been accused of accepting $65 million from an Abu Dhabi prince (and then trying to launder the money through a former mistress), cheating on his wife multiple times, and other unseemly behavior.
SANTIAGO, CHILE – JUNE 05: Juan Carlos king of Spain looks to the front during the visit to the Presidential Palace on June 5, 2012 in Santiago, Chile. (Photo by Marcelo Hernandez/LatinContent via Getty Images)
Ex-Prince Andrew and Spain’s Juan Carlos trip to Kazakhstan
And now, historian and royal biographer Andrew Lownie — who wrote the bestselling book “Entitles the Rise and Fall of the House of York” — tells me Juan Carlos had been up to dirty tricks for decades.
”Juan Carlos and (ex-Prince) Andrew were in Kazakhstan together,” Lownie told me.
It is known Andrew went to the country in 2007 for a “trade conference” and again in 2008 for a goose hunt as part of his “duties” as royal trade commoner, and Juan Carlos made several personal trips to the country around that time as well.
Lownie told me that cash gifts were given to the men and introductions were made to local women.
Andrew made the most of his Kazakh connections. A local oligarch bought his and Sarah Ferguson’s marital home, Sunninghill House, for a whopping $5 million over what it was worth in 2007.
Lownie went on to assert that, like Andrew, Juan Carlos was gifted very expensive jewelry which he would then fence.
Ex-Prince Andrew ‘digging his heels in’ on royal eviction: Biographer
”One of the ways that (the now erstwhile royals were) paid is through jewelry, and they then fenced that jewelry through various jewelers, and that’s been going for years. It’s what Juan Carlos of Spain did,” Lownie said, before adding ominously: “And of course, Juan Carlos of Spain was very close to Andrew. They were sort of working together, particularly in Kazakhstan.”
We can only wonder if these trips are included in Juan Carlos’ memoir.
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