After a few happy first years of marriage, Don Juan Carlos and Dona Sofía's relationship was blown up when the king's infidelities with other women began.
The marriage of the emeritus kings began successfully. Don Juan Carlos had chosen a European princess, daughter, sister, and granddaughter of kings who had been trained to occupy a throne. He said it when asked before the wedding: "I love Princess Sofia from the first moment I saw her. She is one of the few women I know capable of wearing a Royal Crown with all dignity".
Juanito, as he was known in the family, did not belong to a ruling house. His family was in exile, in Estoril, Portugal, and the chances of him occupying a throne were slim in the early 1960s, when the emeritus kings became engaged. Sofía liked the “boy from Barcelona”, as her mother, Queen Federica, called him.
He was a tall, attractive young man with a great sense of humor and was confident in his chances to be the future King of Spain. But, above all, Queen Federica was the one who had seen the most possibilities for that marriage and the one who tried to get the two young people together, to the point that she almost ruined the relationship due to her pressures, according to Mrs. Sofia.
The (few) happy years of Don Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía
It was at the wedding of the Dukes of Kent, in London, in 1961, when Juan Carlos noticed Sofía, after sitting together at the ceremony. The engagement was announced months later. The wedding, which took place in Athens on May 14, 1962, was a luxurious event, organized down to the smallest detail by Federica, bringing together almost all the royal families of Europe to the Spanish royal family and nobility.
Sofia was happy. Juan Carlos too. He had found what he considered the ideal partner for his path to the throne. Sofia, related to German and British royalty, as well as Greek, knew the protocol, she was clear who was who in the Gotha. She also exhibited great discipline, patience, and a left hand to capture all the nuances of the difficult life that awaited them with Franco, who, at first, did not agree with the choice of Juan Carlos, because she was a foreign princess and of faith. orthodox.
But Sofia had renounced her claim to the Greek throne and had converted to Catholicism before the wedding. The princes professed great affection for each other in those early days and, above all, they had great complicity, in an environment that was often hostile to them. Both settled in Spain. Sofía did not appreciate her coexistence with her in-laws in Estoril, in an atmosphere that seemed sad to her, and Franco had booked the Zarzuela Palace on the outskirts of Madrid for the young prince.
There are many photographs from those early years, in which Doña Sofía appears wearing the most fashionable outfits of the time, always smiling and calm. Those were the years when she and Juanito had to start a family and take the first steps that could lead them to the throne.
The first child was a girl, Elena, and she arrived on December 20, 1963. The second too. She was called Cristina and came into the world on June 13, 1965. The long-awaited heir, Felipe, only arrived at the third on January 30, 1968. The married life of the princes seemed happy and consolidated. In 1969 Franco confirmed that Juan Carlos would be his heir. Part of the task had paid off.
Why the Marriage of King Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía Failed: the Bourbon Gene and Infidelities
It was when they came to the throne that the problems of the marriage seem to have begun, although it has also been commented that Don Juan Carlos had other relationships from the beginning, as had his grandfather and great-grandfather and, perhaps, his father. The Bourbon gene they call it. For this reason, once the heir was achieved, it seems that the relationship between the princes grew apart. Sofia was a young woman and in love, but she understood the servitudes of a royal marriage, although it is not clear if she was already aware of her husband's infidelities.
However, Doña Sofía's patience came to an end in 1975. The queen faced an unexpected situation that definitely opened her eyes. The moment was an unannounced visit that the queen organized with her three children to the palace of the Encomienda de Mudela, in Ciudad Real, where Don Juan Carlos was staying to participate in a hunt. Doña Sofía wanted to surprise her husband. When she arrived, she left her children in the palace garden and went inside. What she discovered there seems to have confirmed what was perhaps an open secret at the time, that her husband used hunting to have fun with other women.
The Encomienda was the hunting ground in which Don Juan Carlos organized hunting days to correspond to the invitations that other hosts made to him, among other numerous members of the European nobility and Spanish high society. The last time she visited him was in 2013. It seems that this country palace was the place where Alfonso XIII also hid many of his lovers. Queen Sofía never visited him again, after that afternoon in which she left the house immediately and hastily. It seems that she surprised Don Juan Carlos with another woman.
Doña Sofía and Don Juan Carlos have led separate lives ever since. The emeritus queen has even thought about divorce, but she knows that a royal marriage cannot end like this, at least in her generation. Her mother made it clear to him. Doña Sofía has suffered a lot, but she has concentrated on the role of her consort, also aware of the commitment she acquired with the Spanish monarchy. Her impeccable role has been called into question when all the scandals that affect King Juan Carlos have come out. But Doña Sofía has fulfilled her duty and she has never caused any stir.
