King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, 86, has led a quiet life away from the media in Abu Dhabi, but his tranquility is being disturbed by the publication of the book ‘King Corp’.
The controversial book, the result of an exhaustive investigation, reveals an exclusive that has caused a stir: the possibility that Juan Carlos I has a secret daughter.
Article summary
But for some time now, there has been speculation about the existence of other possible illegitimate children of Juan Carlos I, which has been a cause of concern for the Spanish Royal Family, as it would imply the incorporation of new heirs in the line of succession to the Spanish throne.
Does King Juan Carlos of Spain have more illegitimate children?
There are two persons, Albert Solà and Ingrid Sartiau, who claim to be direct descendants of Juan Carlos I.
Albert Solà, who passed away less than a year ago, spent much of his life gathering evidence to prove that the emeritus king was his father.
Unfortunately, he was unable to obtain legal recognition as the son of the former monarch. Solà’s story begins in Barcelona in 1956, when he was separated from his unmarried mother shortly after his birth, claiming he needed special care.
Albert was raised by a wealthy family in Ibiza, and one of the details that caught his attention was the fact that this family received a good quarterly payment for the child’s breastfeeding, according to his own statements.
After his seventh birthday, Solà was given up for adoption to a farming couple who gave him their surname, Salvador Solà, and Antonia Jiménez, and for him, they were his real parents.
For most of his life, he did not search for his origins or his biological parents but began to investigate when he was living in Mexico. In 1988, he applied for his adoption file at the Casa de Maternidad in Barcelona but was denied because a judicial process was required.
The Catalan was reconstructing the pieces of his life that led him to think that his biological father was Juan Carlos I. One of the clues he found was an annotation in his adoption file that mentioned a “green pacifier”, referring to babies of royal blood. This belief stayed with him until his last breath.
Ingrid Sartiau, born in 1966 in Belgium, knew from an early age who her biological father was. According to an interview, her mother did not hesitate to reveal her father’s identity when images of the King of Spain appeared on a Belgian TV channel.
According to her account, her mother and Juan Carlos I met at a fair in Luxembourg, and nine months later she was born.
At first, Ingrid showed no interest in knowing her father, but over time she began to investigate and came across the story of Albert Solà.
Both joined forces to try to prove that they were children of the Spanish monarch, but the justice system considered that insufficient evidence was presented to validate the version of these two people.
The book has not been sued
The book, written by Spanish journalists José María Olmo and David Fernández, puts Felipe VI’s father in the spotlight, but the Zarzuela Palace they have not said anything, they have not contacted the authors to deny or criticize their investigation.
Olmo and Fernandez do not expect a lawsuit from Alejandra Rojas, the alleged fourth daughter of Juan Carlos I because they are confident in the strength of their evidence, but they have noticed aggressiveness from sectors very close to the king emeritus.