What sort of madness is this? Juan Carlos is the modern father of the country. He is Spain.
He just needs to call that money speaking fees like Bill Clinton did.
Juan Carlos is also the father of that old, OLD ‘gun carelessness’ meme: “I don’t know what happened... I was just cleaning it, when it went off,” when he fatally shot his brother, when both of them were still kids.
Evidently when Spain and Portugal were splitting up the new world there was a lot of tension. A meeting was held and an agreement was come up with blessed by the Pope that half the world would go to Spain and the other half to Portugal.
But then Portugal lost to Spain in some war and the other half of the world went to Spain as well as the spoils of war.
So Juan Carlos is the King of the World ... not Leonardo DeCaprio.
The Spanish monarchy has had a serious financial problem from the day it was restored by Franco. The crown had previously been stripped of its assets, land and other real property from which most monarchs derive their independent income. They are very asset-poor.
They arent at all like the British monarchy, which is the largest landowner in that country.
Interestingly the Spanish aristocracy did not lose their property. A quirk of history.
But the Spanish monarchs must nevertheless maintain a certain lifestyle. A very grand lifestyle, vis-a-vis bicycle commuting Scandinavian monarchs for instance. This is Spain, certain things are expected. It must all suit the architecture and tradition. You may have to go have a look at the place to understand the problem.
The British monarchs can afford to keep up appearances, the Spanish ones struggle.
So to make up the diff between skimpy state support and grand expectations, Juan Carlos has had to scramble for money, in less than royal ways. This sort of thing is not out of character for monarchs by the way, going way back. Lots of them were chronically skint and acted accordingly.