Iñaki Urdangarin: "I lost one of the loves of my life"

BarcelonaThe king's former brother-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, who went to prison in June 2018 and was released in January 2021, spoke for the first time about his experience behind bars on the program Sequence plan On La 2 Cat. In a conversation with journalist Jordi Basté, Urdangarin explained that he was devastated. "Materially, I lost almost everything I had. And then there's a very big loss, which is one of the loves of my life, Cristina. It was a very hard time and we had a very difficult time. It had consequences and it's painful; she's a woman I love very much," he said. The former brother-in-law of the king was convicted of embezzlement, abuse of power, fraud, two tax offenses, and influence peddling. He was incarcerated in the Brieva prison in Ávila, in a women's prison.

According to his account, he experienced the fact that he wasn't allowed to interact with other prisoners as a double punishment. He explained that he could have conversations with the officials or healthcare workers who visited him, and that this helped him "get through the day better," but that the most difficult time was when prison visits were suspended due to COVID: "Those months were especially hard. I'm not proud of how much I emotionally questioned my situation. I got caught up in a rut, in how I thought I would react and start taking care of myself," Urdangarin admitted. "Emotionally, I was breaking down. I was authorized to take a course on emotional well-being, and I applied what I read and studied to my daily life. I had the opportunity to reinvent myself. Sport was my medicine; without sport, I wouldn't have made it." To pull himself together, he explained in the interview with Basté, he took a course on emotional well-being, enrolled in a master's program in psychology at the UNED (National University of Distance Education), and obtained his personal trainer certification. He used the stationary bike extensively and read many letters from family, friends, and strangers who, in his opinion, empathized with his situation.

The former Barça player highlighted the positive things he gained from his time in prison, such as, in his opinion, getting to know himself and improving as a person. Pablo, the second son of Infanta Cristina and Urdangarin, also participated in the conversation. The young man, who also plays handball for Fraikin Granollers, said he was proud to bear his surname. The interview took place after the announcement that he will publish his memoirs on February 12th under the title Everything we've experienced. In the book, he recounts his childhood, his sporting career, and his entry into the royal family after his marriage to Infanta Cristina, as well as his time in prison after being convicted in the Nóos case. According to the publisher Grijalbo, which will release the book, it is "a first-person account of the success, fall, and personal reconstruction" of Urdangarin, who separated from Cristina de Borbón in January 2022 after almost 25 years of marriage.

Jordi Basté's debut on La 2 Cat resulted in very good audience figures: a 9.2% share and 145,000 viewers, well above the channel's average, although insufficient to overshadow the Poland, which remained at 294,000 followers and one share of 17.2%. It also competed against the first section ofAPM? And there the result was closer: the TV cutbacks program got 11.7% and for a quarter of an hour it trailed behind Sequence plan.

A book with his memoirs

“For many years, my life was told by others. Journalists, judges, pundits, strangers… Everyone seemed to know who I was, what I thought, what I did, why I did it. And I, in the midst of all this, chose silence,” says Urdangarin, who adds that now he wants to tell his story alongside theirs. “Not to justify myself, nor to seek sympathy, nor to cover up mistakes. On the contrary: I am writing this book because I need to face everything I have lived through—the highs, but also the lows—and share it honestly,” he says in the book. Recently, Judge José Castro, who tried Urdangarin and Princess Cristina, who was acquitted, also published a book about that case entitled The Nóos case. The whole truth about the trial that shocked Spain. Urdangarin's book will be released two months after King Emeritus Juan Carlos I also published his memoirs, under the title of Reconciliation.