Joan Carles and the burdensome journey from intimate friend to partner

I read on the front page of El País that “Juan Carlos I renounces the 65 million he gave to Corinna Larsen”. But what strikes me most is that they refer to her as “his ex-partner”. I think about the tortuous path the press has had to travel to finally call things by their name. What the royal household once accepted defining as an “intimate friend” –although I don’t know if, given the nature of the relationship, bringing up guts was a good semantic idea– the more monarchist media persisted in treating her with questionable euphemisms such as “special friend” or “close friend”. It took a few more scandals to break, for him to abdicate, and for him to put a few thousand kilometers of distance between them to finally be able to call her his “mistress” in the press. It is a more accurate term, because it frankly captures the recreational activities they indulged in, but it still evokes a fleeting relationship, of sporadic and clandestine encounters, it was great, I’ll call you later, and then each to their own home. That El País speaks of her in terms of an ex-partner is a whole other kettle of fish and the term helps to understand some dynamics like this peculiar 65 million little Bizum that will remain unpunished. “Keep this for a while, queen,” Juan Carlos might have told her, before putting his hand over his mouth and exclaiming “Oops, sorry!”.

This semantic evolution could be seen as a healthy sign of the desacralization of the monarchy. But it must be remembered that, just like the evolution of species, it was slow, very slow. And that the establishment media only dared to call things by their name when the institution had already drawn its firebreak by moving the crown from the head. The true test of changing times would be seen if it were ever necessary to report on the slips and falls –physical and metaphorical– of a reigning king.