Pictures had surfaced: Iñaki Urdangarin with a strange woman on the beach. Now the Spanish royal sister Cristina has drawn the consequences.
Madrid – The series of affairs in the Spanish royal family does not stop: the younger of King Felipe VI’s two sisters. (53), Infanta Cristina (56), and former world handball star and lawyer Iñaki Urdangarin announced the end of their marriage on Monday after more than 24 years.
“By mutual consent, we have decided to end our marital relationship,” says a joint communiqué between the two, published by state television broadcaster RTVE and other Spanish media.
Just a few days ago, Lecturas magazine published photos showing Urdangarin and a strange woman walking hand in hand on the beach at Bidart in the French Basque country.
It later emerged that the woman was a colleague of Cristina’s estranged husband, who worked at a law firm in Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Spanish Basque Country. Questioned by journalists on the street a few days later, Urdangarin simply said: “Things like this happen.” You want to discuss the “problem” at home.
Not the first scandal
It’s not the first and it’s not the worst scandal surrounding the soon-to-be-divorced couple. Urdangarin was sentenced to almost six years in prison in 2018 in the affair surrounding the alleged charitable foundation “Nóos” for embezzlement of six million euros in tax money and for forging documents, money laundering and fraud. For the first time, a direct member of the royal family was behind bars. The 54-year-old is now in open prison.
The scandal that broke out more than ten years ago had caused a stir and, according to observers, led to the abdication of King Juan Carlos in favor of the then Crown Prince Felipe in 2014, along with other affairs. Cristina was accused of aiding and abetting tax fraud but was acquitted. dpa
