Relationship between Jaime Peñafiel and the Royal Family

[Toledo]

If you do find a reliable quote of Penafiel that blamed Sofia for his daughter's suicide, Toledo, I would be interested to see it.

I did several searches in Spanish using google and key words like his name and the Queen's name, the words suicide and family and could not scoop out the quotes on his resentful statements against Queen Sofia.

Good news is I found a few things I never read before, like the article on the Royal Family finances and their cats and dogs including their pet Cheetah that lived at Zarzuela palace, and the article on Penafiel and wife stalking the hospital while Letizia was giving birth.

I'll keep looking. Maybe my fellow Spaniards can help out with clues or any hint they have read in other Spanish language royal forums.

I've changed the title of the thread to reflect to where this discussion has headed.

Please keep it clean and civil as it was up to this point.

thanks,
Anna_R
Spanish Forums Moderator

Thanks for the change of titles to something more general. This thread will go on and on as long as Penafiel keeps insiting he is the know-it-all of European Royal Houses.

 

[ysbel]

What kind of help exactly was Penafiel asking QS for his daughter? It intrigues me because for him to write all the things about the SRF and now Letizia it must be something big.

Like Toledo, I couldn't find anything on Google about it. Without any real information, the truth could be one of two things: Penafiel could have actually blamed Sofia for his daughter's death or a fellow reporter could have invented an explanation for Penafiel's dislike of Sofia by making up a false story about Penafiel blaming Sofia for the suicide. I gather Penafiel is not too popular with a certain group in Spain.

Perhaps, our Spanish members may know more details.

 

[crisiñaki]

Like Toledo, I couldn't find anything on Google about it. Without any real information, the truth could be one of two things: Penafiel could have actually blamed Sofia for his daughter's death or a fellow reporter could have invented an explanation for Penafiel's dislike of Sofia by making up a false story about Penafiel blaming Sofia for the suicide. I gather Penafiel is not too popular with a certain group in Spain.

Perhaps, our Spanish members may know more details.

If those rumors (of Peñafiel blaming QS) were true I believe he would have told so in a TV show as he's a huge drama queen and wouldn't have wasted the opportunity to throw some more dirt on the SRF and get some spotlight (which is very rare for him nowadays as no one wants to hear him)

 

[ysbel]

Well crisinaki since you were the first to mention that Penafiel blamed Sofia for his daughter's suicide, I thought that you believed he did blame Sofia.

Peñafiel has a grudge against Queen Sofia, he blames her for his daughter's suicide because he says he called the Queen for help and she "didn't" help him, I personally cannot understand why would the Queen solve his problems

Now you're saying that you don't think its true? Penafiel may be contemptible but that's doesn't make it right to spread rumours about something as tragic as suicide.

 

[crisiñaki]

Well crisinaki since you were the first to mention that Penafiel blamed Sofia for his daughter's suicide, I thought that you believed he did blame Sofia.



Now you're saying that you don't think its true? Penafiel may be contemptible but that's doesn't make it right to spread rumours about something as tragic as suicide.

I mentioned that just to make a point of maybe why would he blame her and her family for what happened to his daughter.

His daughter did kill herself but so far there's no proof he ever asked QS for help and maybe if he did, she may have tried to point him in the right direction like "make her go to the shrink" or something like that but Peñafiel may have wanted QS to solve that situation and maybe that's why he resents her.

I don't know whether he asked for help or not, what I don't understand is why would he resent the SRF for that? they have the same obligation to solve his problems as they have for the next citizen, this only proves how full of himself this man is

 

[fandesacs2003]

He blames Queen Sofia because he asked her help about his daughter's problem... and she didn't help! Or so he said!

Hi, I do not understand, how Queen Sifia could have helped his doughter???
Were they close friends? Which kind of help???

Did this girl needed something special? and Queen Sofia did not assist her? Otherwise how could Quuen Sofia be held resonsible for every sad thing??

Can someone clarify please???

 

[carlota]

i don't think jaime 'asked for help' to the queen as such. as far as i know, he was hurt because the queen didn't send him a message of condolence when his daughter died, despite the good relationship at that time between him and her. it's good to note that since that day the relationship shrivelled, but before he had a very close relationship with the royal family and was a good friend of his majesty.

 

[lula]

i don't think jaime 'asked for help' to the queen as such. as far as i know, he was hurt because the queen didn't send him a message of condolence when his daughter died, despite the good relationship at that time between him and her. it's good to note that since that day the relationship shrivelled, but before he had a very close relationship with the royal family and was a good friend of his majesty.

In a program of telvisión told that he had asked for help her and one had not given it.

I do not believe that Jaime Peñafiel was a friend of the Queen ever, bearing in mind that the Queen almost does not have friends in Spain believe that an individual interseizes him this how. The Queen is clever and she would never entrust her intimacies to a journalist like that.

Peñafiel was a journalist respected and expert in Royal Houses almost in epoch of Franco. Then he was living well and could be nearer to the power. Then there was working in Hola that always has been a respected magazine.
Later he had a magazine that failed and almost he finishes in the jail for one publishes Franco's photos agonizing.

I believe that since then he has gone from bad to worse. He believes himself superior to the others and there his problem is. He is the haughty one. He insults and judges the others with lightness, and he demonstrates to be worse than all those of that he writes, for the way in which he speaks about them. He insults to Letizia's family for being humble persons and to Mette Marit the flame prostitute. Nevertheless, his life has not been perfect, he is divorced and remarried , his daughter died for being a drug addict and he almost finishes in the jail .... so few shame has on having spoken how he does it of other persons.


What I do not understand is that there is a forum dedicated to this individual .

 

[Juanita]

Hi, I do not understand, how Queen Sifia could have helped his doughter???
Were they close friends? Which kind of help???

Did this girl needed something special? and Queen Sofia did not assist her? Otherwise how could Quuen Sofia be held resonsible for every sad thing??

Can someone clarify please???

Queen Sofia is president of a fundacion that help people with drugs' problems. And Jaime ask her help... i do not know what kind of help but i suppose he asked for some support for himself and his daughter.
And so Jaime Peñafiel said the Queen sent him a letter (one of the reasons that he call her a "cold" person) and she never said nothing more about it.

 

[carlota]

i know he was close to the queen but much closer to the king, with whom he had a quite close relationship (of course, this was during that period you are mentioning of when he was a much more powerful journalist). he enjoyed a quite privileged position during those times as far as i know, he travelled with the royals sometimes (to cover their agenda) and more than once he told quite interesting anecdotes from those times.

what lula says is also true. he likes being extremely critic and that's most o the times not appreciated. however, his dislike for mette marit or letizia comes from a long time ago, and i think he won't change his mind about that. it's understandable though, considering he is a quite old man with quite old ideals: he supports marriage between equals and i doubt he would be pleased with felipe's choice of wife in th 99% of the cases, no matter what he chose. again, i think it's quite understandable. he saw a period of royalty when practically all the princes and princesses came from royal/noble backgrounds and those who weren't royals were well educated, honourable, humble ladies. i think we can blame not him but his experiences because of his narrow-mind

 

[lula]

i know he was close to the queen but much closer to the king, with whom he had a quite close relationship (of course, this was during that period you are mentioning of when he was a much more powerful journalist). he enjoyed a quite privileged position during those times as far as i know, he travelled with the royals sometimes (to cover their agenda) and more than once he told quite interesting anecdotes from those times.

They were other times, and the things in these years have changed very much.
Today in day there are several journalists who travel with the Royal Family in the official trips, some newspapers and the most important televisions have persons destined specifically to follow the Royal Family. It is the case of Mai Angeles Alcazar for La Vanguardia or Carmen Enriques in TVE; They go years or enclosed decades following the Royal Family, but they work for serious means and devote themselves to report not to gossip.

 

[Toledo]

So things make more sense now, from what I gather from the replies above (thanks everyone!) the picture of Penafiel resentment against Queen Sofia becomes more clear and explains why he, once with access to the inner circle of power, is now left out:
1. His daugther died of a drug related over dose.
2. The Queen is president of a Foundation that helps people with drug problems.
Thus...Penafiel projects his frustration on the Queen, a former aquaintance (?) for not doing enough (?).
3. He adds to that resentment the silence of the Royal Family after his daugther died.
That means he thought of himself so important that Queen Sofia should have paid more attention to his ego ?!?

It seems he does not realize that Spain has millions of persons for the King and Queen to worry about and Penafiel's idea is that Royalty must revolve around his journalist's ego. That would explain why the drastic change from been so pro-Royal Family for so many years and now taking every opportunity to do reports while his resentment comes to the surface on every article.

 

[ysbel]

Well actually I found it more interesting that Penafiel became a powerful journalist under the regime of Franco. I can't imagine a liberal or democratic thinking journalist could have been so powerful under Franco's rule. So it makes perfect sense that he believes that royals should only marry their equals and that is why he dislikes Letizia.

We don't get much news in the U.S. about the Spanish royals nowadays but they were very much in the news in the 70s when Franco died and later the military tried to take over parliament.

I read once that Franco approved of Juan Carlos over his father because the king's father expressed very democratic-leaning principles which Franco disapproved of. Juan Carlos apparently hadn't said anything so Franco assumed that he was conservative-learning which turned out to be wrong. I also read that the military initially supported Juan Carlos and expected him to support them when they tried to take over parliament.

I can only guess that some of the king's earlier supporters were very conservative and were disappointed when Juan Carlos later supported democracy. When did Penafiel's change of attitude towards the royals come about? What was his attitude towards the shifting to democracy in Spain?

A couple of things about his attitude don't make sense. I see that he doesn't like the fact that Sofia is Greek but if royals only married other royals, the royals are going to have to marry a foreigner eventually. What other complaints does he have about Sofia? I'm also curious about his attitudes towards Cristina's and Elena's marriages to commoners.

There seems to be different stories of exactly what happened with his daughter's suicide. I wonder if its what we call in English a red herring, something that appears to explain something when it really doesn't. Its possible that he did resent at least a lack of sympathy from the Royal Family but it could also be possible that people find Penafiel's attitudes terrible (understandably) and are trying to make what he says seem trivial and unimportant by offering an explanation that makes him seem petty and vengeful.

From what you all have have said, it seems equally possible that he resents the royal family for not living up to the ideals that he may have expected when he began covering them as a journalist.

Can you explain more about his history of reporting the royal family and how his attitudes have changed over the years?

 

[Diogenes]

Well actually I found it more interesting that Penafiel became a powerful journalist under the regime of Franco. I can't imagine a liberal or democratic thinking journalist could have been so powerful under Franco's rule. So it makes perfect sense that he believes that royals should only marry their equals and that is why he dislikes Letizia.

His right-wing past probably explains his resentment towards the Royal Family as he must have been one of those who believed that the young king would maintain Franco's fascist status quo.

We don't get much news in the U.S. about the Spanish royals nowadays but they were very much in the news in the 70s when Franco died and later the military tried to take over parliament.

Juan Carlos really out-manoevered Tejero and his cronies with an excellent show of statemanship. I remember how these dramatic events had us all glued to our television sets.

I can only guess that some of the king's earlier supporters were very conservative and were disappointed when Juan Carlos later supported democracy. When did Penafiel's change of attitude towards the royals come about? What was his attitude towards the shifting to democracy in Spain?

I bet he wasn't best pleased! Surely, he switched to being a Royal expert, confidant and 'friend' but probably under duress.

 

[Juanita]

A couple of things about his attitude don't make sense. I see that he doesn't like the fact that Sofia is Greek but if royals only married other royals, the royals are going to have to marry a foreigner eventually. What other complaints does he have about Sofia? I'm also curious about his attitudes towards Cristina's and Elena's marriages to commoners.

I read before the suicide of his daughter, when he really worked with the King, he always had a good relation with Sofia. She was greek (i don't know if she is greek now) but she did and she does a wonderful work for Spain and for the whole world! And she really wanted to have the importance that she has now.. Jaime liked those fellings about Spain (Sofia learnt spanish very fast and she want to be a spanish woman) so he helped her.
About Cristina's and Elena's marriages, i read something that he wrote. It was a criticism to Letizia and there he said that both the Infantas didn't marry the right person. I read also he can stand Elena's husband because he is a cultured person and interested in all kinds of art, but Cristina's husband he cannot stand because he was a handball player (pathetic reason, in my opinion!).

Can you explain more about his history of reporting the royal family and how his attitudes have changed over the years?

He was Chief of the Royal House and he changed when the King decided to change the Chief of the Royal House. I think that was the first reason of all his changes!
Then his daughter's suicide: his daughter had a problem with drugs and he asked the Queen (she is President of some fundacion that helps people with drugs' problems) for help. Not just for his daughter, but also for himself; some psychological support. But, so he says, he received a letter from the Queen saying the Queen couldn't help them because she had lot of work (it was something like this, i'm not very sure).
So, she died and since her suicide, Jaime Peñafiel blames the Queen for her daughter's death!
Now, he attacks most part of the Royal Family. But now he attacks first Letizia and he ignores sometimes the Queen.
And he doesn't criticize the Queen, he just does bad commentaries about her. On the other hand, he criticizes a lot Letizia and all the things that she did or does!
I hope i can answer to your questions!

 

[Toledo]

Wow, this research has been a great group effort! Thanks everyone!

Penafiel's true character finally comes to light as a complicated person himself. He is like a remnant of the old Regime that terrorized us for decades as we grew up. He could not adapt to the changes of the new monarchy, as is said often about King Juan Carlos who has a Court without the Courtesans (a.k.a. the Spanish aristocracy). Penafiel could not keep up with the times and the changes made by the King to modernize the idea of a constitutional monarchy supported by the people, not by an army. And now all he has to lash out are articles loaded with double meaning against Spain's true Royal Family, who took back the country from the hands of the Franco family. The same Franco family that moved in the El Pardo Palace and proclaimed they will be residing there for generations (that was in an article I posted many months ago).

I feel sorry for the loss of his daugther and his frustration, as her father, for not been able to save her from herself. Must be a horrible feeling for any parent to bury your own child.

But the attitude he has been showing against the Royal Family after that personal tragedy does not deserve my sympathy. He seems to me like a really complicated person with a lot of anger inside that lashes out with the tool he has, journalism. And he lashes out against those he seems to blame for his loss.
Maybe one day he will come to his senses.

 

[Zonk]

Many thanks to all who contributed to this thread. I wasn't that familiar with the Jamie Penafiel and his relationship with the SRF but I could definitely tell something wasn't right. There was no mistaking the nastiness of his articles.

While I share Toledo's hope that one day Penafiel will come to his senses..I seriously doubt it. Sometimes, people are so entrenched in their bitterness and hatred that they no longer recognize right or wrong nor are they objective.

 

[ysbel]

He was Chief of the Royal House and he changed when the King decided to change the Chief of the Royal House. I think that was the first reason of all his changes!

What year did this happen? I know that Juan Carlos abolished the court. Was it about the same time? I imagine Penafiel and a lot of the coutiers didn't like that either.

And he doesn't criticize the Queen, he just does bad commentaries about her.

I noticed in the article about Sofia, he doesn't really critcize her but points out her connections to a fallen monarchy. It seems with Sofia the former princess he doesn't cross the boundary to actually criticizing her. With Letizia a former newswoman he does.

Jaime liked those fellings about Spain (Sofia learnt spanish very fast and she want to be a spanish woman) so he helped her.

That must have been a long time ago, I imagine Sofia learned Spanish very well before Juan Carlos came to the throne. Was this the 1960s, early 1970s?

I read also he can stand Elena's husband because he is a cultured person and interested in all kinds of art, but Cristina's husband he cannot stand because he was a handball player (pathetic reason, in my opinion!).

Well I imagine someone who only approves of equal marriages would not like a princess marrying a handball player but I'm amazed he likes Jaime.

 

[Toledo]

At least we know the reasons behind his anger. The bits and pieces I've read on Penafiel's relationship with the Royal Family since the 1960's and the venom he spills nowadays against them made me wonder what happened to this guy to be so vicious. And as I posted above, many of his articles are not translated so those of us who read in Spanish can hardly give you gals and guys a small glimpse on the brutal words he uses so openly.

Speaking of words, I re-worded post # 49. I type in English but was thinking the words in Spanish and my post needed some serious editing after I read it again. Something that probably happens to some of us with more than one language in our heads.

 

[Juanita]

What year did this happen? I know that Juan Carlos abolished the court. Was it about the same time? I imagine Penafiel and a lot of the coutiers didn't like that either.

i think it was in the 90's.... it was bettween the 80's and the 90's! But i don't know the exactly year! Sorry...

That must have been a long time ago, I imagine Sofia learned Spanish very well before Juan Carlos came to the throne. Was this the 1960s, early 1970s?

She learned Spanish between 1961 and 1962, because when she met Franco she already spoke spanish.

 

[ldt20]

Comments from Jaime Peñafiel

Here are some comments Jaime Peñafiel made about the Royal Family in an awards ceremony in Madrid:
http://es.celebrities.yahoo.com/15062006/57/jaime-penafiel-emparentar-familia-real-privilegio-servidumbre.html
From Yahoo.es

Numerous well-known faces occur to appointment in the prizes of the magazine ' I Doná. One of them was the journalist Jaime Peñafiel, whom it asked for the businesses of the Duke of Palm and other subjects to him of the present time that surround to the Royal Family.

- Don Iñaki de Urdangarin has rectified its businesses of Majorca.
I want to believe it, I believe that he has been sensible, but we go badly advisory of Telephone not this. It is a good position.

- You think that the Duke of Palm is making profitable the union to the Royal Family?

The facts are there, until the opposite does not demonstrate itself. He is a valid person, that perhaps it needed the marriage with the Infant, so that the world knew that she is a valued person. It has demonstrated it.

- Princes de Asturias one has seen very fans them with the Spanish selection

Like everybody. I have liked the party and that that I am not become fond of. Although I do not like futbol, likes me to see win to the Spanish selection.

- What you think on the rumors that say that Rocasolano Dove was going to rent a villa by 300 euros?

I have not believed it because it seems to me an error, an enormous damage to the Real House. The family of Letizia, within which she fits, is behavior moderately well. To accept that canonry of house, as it is said that they were preparing to him in the Brown, would be a demential thing.

- It is truth that their parents are going away to transfer to the house where lives she now.

Everybody changes of house when it can. Of Moratalaz, one has gone away to an apartment in the center of Madrid, and to their house of Moratalaz their parents have gone. - it is not rare that so soon the Royal Family denies? That demonstrates that it was a serious thing. It is as they must be. To become related with the real family is not a privilege is a servitude.

 

[Toledo]

Penafiel is just what I needed on a day off to upset my lunch.
Well, at least he keep us amussed. Is too bad many of his articles are not translated for the international press, and for us, to share here. Many of you who don't know yet the extension of his split-tongued comments would be horrified of the things he writes these days.

 

[lisamaria]

The options are there for Constantine to take, if he wants to put the past behind now that he is back in Greece he should make something more than an effort to get his property back. His ego should not be bigger than his common sense.

I have got the impression that Konstantin is living in Greece purely as a private citizen, and has no interest in trying to advance the monarchist cause there. He has been considered by many as the most Greek of the whole RF of Greece; prince Micheal who married a Greek woman, a commoner, has said that much. The WWII aside, perhaps no other country in Europe has suffered like Greece during the 20th century; coups, revolutions, military governments, civil wars, partisans, dozens and dozens of governments, one following the other. I doubt whether even King Solomon himself would have survived it all; Konstantin stood no change, despite of having been immensely popular just a moment earlier.

I found this threat very interesting, especially everything said about this Peñafiel guy. I'm quite sure the Norvegian would find his comments about Mette-Marit very interesting. The most amazing thing about his views seems to be that they are so wonderfully old-fashioned. He, for example, complains about the new spouses (like M-M) being too common, from too lowly origins to sustein the monarchy. He mentioned in one of the links posted here that Letizia's grandfather was - shock horror - a taxi-driver. And yet Sofia, the most blueblooded of the bluebloods, is not good enough for him either. What a gem he is

 

[ldt20]

Jaime Peñafiel has been on 20minutos.es yesterday Oct 25, 2006 answering questions from online users.

You can read all the questions and answers here:
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/165180/0/jaime/penafiel/encuentro/

 

[Marengo]

I recently asked a question about Penafiel on the Franco-Iberian board. Manuel replied & he is a most informed poster, so her the exact reason of Penafiel's scars.

[FONT=verdana, arial]
Marengo: Excuse my ignorance, but what 'personal scars'
: did Penafiel get from Queen Sofia?

Manuel:It had to do with the death of Peñafiel's daughter. She died of drug overdose. After her death, he sent a letter to the Queen, explaining the case, and wanted the Queen to get personally involved. I mean, he wanted that the Queen spoke about Peñafiel's daughter and use her as an example for other children of "good families". The Queen is the president of the association against drug adiction. The Queen did not answer personally and he only got a letter from the Queen's office. That is the story. He has never forgiven her. He thought he deserved more, after all those years of "dedication".

Manuel also said that although he has personal wounds, Penafiel usually states that as a Queen Sofia is perfect for the role (usually to continue with saying how Letizia will never be able to stand in her shadow).

-
Though Penafiel didn't have any right to expect the Queen to single out his daughter, I can understand that he was hurt, as a suicide of your own daughter should be & will always stay incredibly painfull. Sadly he is projecting part of his pain on HM, which is not right but of course not abnormal IMO (many people project their anger, pain etc. on other people). Just very sad, all of this.
[/FONT]

 

[magnik]

Tell what you want but I repeat that what I've wrote in the other thread: He's a poor man who need a good psychotherapist.

 

[adelaide]

Tell what you want but I repeat that what I've wrote in the other thread: He's a poor man who need a good psychotherapist.

Totally agree it's really apoor a ill man whom the single luck of life it will be meeting a good psychotherpist taking in a count his delirium

 

[crisiñaki]

Peñafiel is a relic, a legacy from a different era, he has a strong belief in the old ways of the monarchy and that's why he dislikes both Iñaki and Letizia (Jaime is an aristocrat, so he's ok on Peñafiel's book), because they are commoners and has quite the love/hate relationship with the Queen, sometimes I think he's like one of those scorned lovers that live at the shadow of their loved ones

 

[catango]

He is a clown, Jaime just tells polemics things for money, He wasn't popular before, and now He critizes Princess Letizia for all, that make him popular and they feel and important person is all what He wants. ATENTION.

A VERY RIDICULOUS MAN.

HE has been wrong in many statements about SRF, soooo?????, whar is his credibility.??????????