Pilar Eyre: "Don Juan Carlos put everything at Corinna's feet, even the crown"

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Pilar Eyre,

Barcelona, ​​1951. Journalist specializing in Casa Real

and writer.

Her new novel,

(Planet), portrays

from the late 1960s to 1992 through a gallery of unforgettable characters.

Do you miss how we were yesterday or are we better today?

If we talk about ourselves, about those who lived then, I think that before we were better.

Our emotions were running high, we wanted to change the world, we had high hopes for the future, the present we had was so bad that we could only go up... And we also had a mission: on the one hand we had the mission of overthrow Franco and we women also had the obligation and the mission to free ourselves.

Having such clear goals made our lives very interesting.

In the portrait that he makes in his book of Barcelona from the end of the 60s and until the Olympic Barcelona of 1992, it is impressive to verify the machismo that existed then.

You suffered it yourself in the Communist Party, right?

Yes.

At that time the companions of the revolution were as chauvinistic as our parents.

For them, feminism was something for idle young ladies and something in the long term, first the dictatorship of the proletariat had to come, then the classless society and then a series of totally absurd objectives that have not been achieved in any country in the world.

And there, at the end of all that, was feminism.

The truth is that they took advantage of our desire to liberate ourselves, because we also defended sexual liberation.

You have to think that the girls of my time married virgins, so that a boy could touch you not only a breast but a rib he had to be four months of pick and shovel, writing you poems, calling you on the phone and promising you of course marriage.

On the wedding night you had to arrive a virgin,

if it wasn't a scandal.

Even so, many girls at that time were married by penalty.

Pertegaz, the dressmaker, was a close friend of mine and he made many wedding dresses, and years later he told me that they had made the waist of those dresses elastic because many pregnant girls got married and that they had to relax it as the pregnancy progressed.

At that time there were already people who transgressed the rules, but from my mother to me not one generation passed, seven passed.

Silvia Muntaner, the protagonist of her book, is one of those people who rebelled.

Did you too?

Yes, totally.

But it is true that it is a bit like Silvia's mentor, Ernesto Che Guevara, says, all revolutions are made for love.

Silvia tells her mother that she wants to join a group and fight against injustice and her mother, with great wisdom, tells her "

It may seem that it is a romantic interpretation of the situation and many people will criticize me.

The issue of commissions, of the money that could have been taken, of the possible corruption in which she could have fallen, is long before Corinna, and Corinna has nothing to do with it.

But the unfortunate performance of the king emeritus in recent years I think has been totally out of spite.

You just have to think that still in the year 2019 Don Juan Carlos went to London with an excuse to beg her to come back with him.

Don Juan Carlos placed all of her at Corinna's feet, placed her crown at her feet, told her that he would separate from Doña Sofía and that he would marry her.

What else can a king do?

I have been told by people who were with them at foundation meetings that Corinna -who went with the king absolutely everywhere- that the one who had the singing voice was Corinna and that the king was completely overwhelmed.

Not that he was in love with her, he was mesmerized, he admired her as if she were a goddess, a saint.

He didn't open his mouth and when someone spoke to her and said anything to her, she would reply: "That's the princess, that's what the princess knows, that's what the princess wears."

I believe that there is great spite in recent years on the part of Don Juan Carlos when he felt rejected by Corinna, something that he sought.

Is it possible that he is still in love with her? Well, I think so.

Love and spite, although it may not seem like it, I think they are very similar feelings,

usually one follows the other.

I think that if at a given moment Corinna proposed to don Juan Carlos to hold a meeting and lower their weapons, if she offered to drop all the accusations and try to rebuild their relationship, don Juan Carlos would suddenly be relieved of 20 years and I would do somersaults

The two would live in Abu Dhabi as two maharajahs.

But that is not going to happen.

How do you think he is going to finish the process in London against the king emeritus?

I don't know how it will end, but what I am almost sure of is that the king will have to testify.

I don't think we'll see him sitting on the bench because I suppose the statement will be made by videoconference, but I think he will make the statement.

I also suppose that Don Juan Carlos' lawyers, who are very good,

They will take into account that if he tried to get out of this trial through, for example, an extrajudicial agreement, which is what seems to be happening, that will be even worse for the image of the king emeritus.

An out-of-court settlement would be an implicit declaration that he is guilty, because if you are innocent you want to go to trial, you want to confront each other, you want to argue, you want to contribute, you want to defend your innocence and expose the other party.

An out-of-court settlement would give Don Juan Carlos a very bad image and, what is worse, it would give the institution a very bad image.

Don Juan Carlos is already amortized, I think it is very difficult to fall lower, to be worse off than he is.

But you have to think about the institution, about King Felipe and Queen Letizia, whose conduct so far is impeccable.

But everything that stains the institution stains its head, who at the moment is Don Felipe.

It has just been 10 years since the accident of don Juan Carlos in Botswana.

Did the emeritus king think he was untouchable?

After studying the psychology of Don Juan Carlos for years, I am convinced that he does not believe that he has committed any irregularity.

To begin with, the king emeritus is surrounded by only four or five people, very few, who spend all day telling him how wonderful he is, how much he has done for Spain and how ungrateful the Spanish are.

To the friends who tried to make him reflect, to apologize and give explanations, he has radically separated them from his side.

And if you're surrounded by people who are all day telling you that you're wonderful, I guess in the end you end up believing it.

But I also believe that Don Juan Carlos, due to his character, considers that he has sacrificed a lot for this country.

I don't think he is aware of the magnitude of the things he has already done.

If Don Juan Carlos returned to Spain, would it be a problem for King Felipe Of course, and that is why he is not going to return.

I have very good sources and the day that Don Juan Carlos left Spain, those sources told me that because of everything he was going to leave, he would not return, that he had left forever.

He will come back dead, when he is going to die or when he is sick.

But if not, he won't come back.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have someone on a TV show waiting for you outside a restaurant yelling at you, "How much did you take, Your Majesty?", "Eeeeh, what's Corinna doing now?"

It's impossible, it would be a shame.

The son is the first who, when he told her to leave Spain, knew that it was forever. Do you think that Leonor will be queen, that the crown will endure?

If Felipe and Letizia continue to do well and don't screw up anything, I think so.

Suppressing the monarchy is very complicated, the Constitution would have to be rewritten, the Cortes dissolved... It's so complicated that I think we're going to continue to have this monarchy for many years, besides, it doesn't really bother us.

There will be those who say that it does not contribute, but that it does not bother is enough.

In addition, the current kings are good ambassadors, they are discreet, they are austere and they have completely broken with their father.

I believe that there is a monarchy for many years.

He has written more than 20 books.

What does literature give him that journalism doesn't? He gives me many things.

Writing books gives me a lot of satisfaction, it gives me an unspeakable pleasure.

I am a person without hobbies, and I had a great time thinking up the plots, writing... And writing books also gives me the trust of publishers and the affection of readers.

It also gives me freedom, freedom to imagine, to let my imagination run wild.

I'm going to give a lot of fight: I have many stories to tell, many things to say, even though the Royal House must be wishing me to retire once and for all.

The king emeritus, is he the great character you have come across?

To biograph him, yes.

And Letizia also has a good biography that one day I will write, I have already had several proposals and one day, in a few years, I will write it.

And I have also done the biography of Franco, another very interesting character, who was Head of State for 40 years and is also a great unknown.

Do you think the king emeritus will have read your biography about him?

I do not know.

I don't think he reads entire books.

I do know that he read my biography about Doña Sofía, in which he attributed 1,500 lovers to her, and I think he was very amused by that and made him repeat it.

"Hey, how many women does Pilar Eyre say I've slept with?" He asked those in his circle.

And he also said: "I am the Julio Iglesias of the monarchy."

How will we be tomorrow?

What do you expect from the future?

I want us to be free men and women tomorrow, that we respect each other and that we live in harmony.

I love men.

And I would like that in addition to men they were real companions, as I have always dreamed of.

And I have also always dreamed of a world without animal abuse.

I would like a world devoid of all kinds of violence.

Although it may not seem like it, we always move forward.

And to move forward, rebellious, brave and excessive people are needed to go to the forefront.

They may fail, but the step they have taken will never be turned back.

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