• Death Constantine of Greece, brother of Queen Sofia and last king of Greece, dies

  • Royals Constantine of Greece and his relationship with Spain: brother of Queen Sofía and one more in Zarzuela

  • Royals Constantine of Greece to be buried privately

  • Album The life of Constantine of Greece, in pictures

This year 2023 has opened for Queen Sofía (84) with one of the most painful events she has had to face: the death of her brother Constantine, the former Greek monarch who died on January 10 at the age of 82 due to a stroke.

He was always her great support

of her and

one of the people she has loved the most in her life.

To understand her very close bond, you have to go back to her childhood and the complicated circumstances that the Greek monarchy went through, since the Nazi invasion forced them to go into exile with scant economic resources in Egypt and South Africa, where Irene was born (81).

"Tino and I were terrified of night sirens

before the bombings.

I would take my brother and run with him to my mother's bed", recalled Doña Sofía, who at just three years old

acted as an older sister.

Months after returning to his homeland, the death of his uncle, King George, made his father monarch.

Pablo de Grecia, the antithesis of the

royal

in use, was a

simple man who gave great importance to the family union.

He gave up residing in the royal palace of Athens, settling in a nearby estate, Tatoi, where every evening he would gather his wife, Queen Federica, and his three children in his private room, and

together they would have dinner, listen to classical music and I read them Greek mythological legends.

The enthronement of his father made Constantine the heir at the age of 7, arousing Sofia's jealousy, since bikes, balls and gifts were for him, which caused

frequent fights

.

Until she was 13 years old, she was sent to the German boarding school in Salem, from which she left at 16. "There she was one more," she recalls.

Those years, apart from longing for her family,

made him mature

and understand her brother's position as her heir.

Queen Sofía with her sister and Nina Flohr, the wife of her nephew Philippos, this week in the Tatoi cemetery where Constantine will be buried.GTRES

From then on she

was his ally and companion

, as well as sharing his passion for sailing with him.

She was precisely sailing when Constantine showed what he was capable of for Sofia.

It happened in 1960 in the waters of Genoa, training for the Olympic Games in Rome, where the future king would win gold, and it was hellish weather, because it was snowing and there was a great gale.

In a sudden turn of the sailboat,

Sofia fell into the sea and her brother, risking her life, jumped into the water to save her

.

His complicity was such that he even served as matchmaker when he met Don Juan Carlos in June 1961 at the

wedding of the Dukes of Kent.

"If my parents were to be there instead of Constantino, Juanito would not have dared to come near, and surely we would not be married," Doña Sofía acknowledged.

His brother's

laissez faire

made it easy for them to make plans together, and he was even the one who paved the way with his parents.

"Prepare yourselves in case there is a surprise.

The Barcelona boy is very regular with Sofía

and she doesn't seem to dislike him."

When King Paul died of stomach cancer in 1964,

Constantine ascended the throne at the age of 24 and months later he married Princess Ana María, 18, daughter of the Danish monarchs, with whom he fell in love when she was 13 years old.

Constantino kisses his sister Irene in the presence of Sofia, in Athens in 2006.GTRES

At that stage, Sofía, already married and mother of the infantas Elena and Cristina,

frequently traveled to Greece to see her family,

for which she witnessed a key event in her brother's existence: the coup of the colonels on 21 September. April 1967. Sofia was in Athens with her daughters for the 50th birthday of their mother, Queen Frederica, and that night they had dined with Constantine and his family at Tatoi.

At dawn, her mother woke them up upset.

"The house is surrounded by soldiers."

Three military leaders had revolted, and although Constantine always disagreed with him with the coup, staying in Greece living with the military dictatorship undermined his image.

Despite attempting a counter-coup to restore democracy, he failed and

had to flee to Rome with his clothes on

.

It was Don Juan Carlos who sent him some suits because he only had the military uniform.

After the republic was established after a referendum in 1974,

Constantine and his family settled in London under the shelter of the British royal family,

since Philip of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth, was a Greek prince.

Proclaimed King Don Juan Carlos in 1975, Constantino, Ana María and their five children became part of the royal family's decoration: they were

regulars at Christmas in Zarzuela,

when they skied in Baqueira they stayed at the royal residence of La Pleta and spent summers in Marivent, where they sailed every day on the

Fortuna

yacht, tasting succulent menus prepared by the palace cook.

The King turned to them because Sofia was happy to be with her brother

and

she felt accompanied

by her.

Constantino's five children grew up with the infantas Elena and Cristina and

Pablo, the eldest, was hand in hand with Prince Felipe,

of a similar age.

"As a child, Spain was my second home.

I remember the summers sailing on my uncle's yacht, my camps with my cousin Felipe and our first outing together to a disco," revealed Pablo.

The Grecia in Fortuna with the royal family and Diana of Wales, in Mallorca.GTRES

Don Juan Carlos initially connected very well with Constantino, they also shared a love of sailing and karate, but in the 90s their relationship went awry.

Partly due to the irruption of Marta Gayá in the life of the monarch, who

broke the heart of Doña Sofía

.

This, together with a documentary made by the British journalist Selina Scott of Don Juan Carlos at the request of Constantino, with whom she was close, and presented a very frivolous image of the monarch on a motorcycle and sailing on the

Fortuna

, for which he was highly criticized.

From then on, her

marital problems

pushed Queen Sofía to take refuge in her brother, in

whose mansion in the exclusive London neighborhood of Hampstead she settled many weekends

to enjoy the family warmth that she did not have in Zarzuela.

Hence the rumor, not true, that she lived in London.

After an exile of almost 40 years, Constantine, who was

stripped of his passport and nationality by the socialist Papandreou,

confiscating his properties,

was able to return to Greece in 2013

, settling in Porto Jeli.

Doña Sofía used to visit her brother

there, who in recent years had very deteriorated health and used a wheelchair.

In 2022, to be more medically controlled, he moved to Athens.

As a result of the

estrangement with his brother-in-law,

Constantino and his family

stopped coming to Spain

, but after the abdication of Don Juan Carlos and Corina Larsen eliminated from his life, the emeritus

sealed peace

, also producing a rapprochement with Constantino on his 80th birthday. of Juan Carlos in 2018. Doña Sofía asked him to invite Constantino, who despite his health ailments attended with Ana María, repeating the trip to Madrid in November for the 80th anniversary of his older sister.

The last stay of Queen Sofía in her country was

last October

, accompanied by Irene, who lives with her in Zarzuela.

Both

had lunch with her brother in a restaurant near Syntagma Square.

It was her farewell, because this January 5, after attending her funeral by Pope Benedict XVI, Doña Sofía, broken with grief, flew to Athens to say her last goodbye to her beloved Constantine, who was already dying.

Next week, they will hold the funeral.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Juan Carlos I

  • Queen Sofia