Botswana Incident

The Botswana Incident refers to a controversial incident that occurred on 15 April 2012 in which Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, became the subject of controversy relating to an elephant-hunting trip in the African country of Botswana. While criticism was initially centered around the expenses for the trip, especially amidst economic hardship back in Spain, it was further intensified when it was also revealed that the King had went on the trip alongside a German entrepreneur named Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, who was later alleged to have been the former's royal mistress since 2004 but whose affair with the monarch only came to light after the King suffered a broken hip from a fall during the trip and therefore required emergency surgery.

The ensuing controversy, coupled with simultaneous revelations of a separate affair with another woman, namely a much younger Dutch noblewoman named Sybille de Selys Longchamps, which even resulted in the birth of a child, eventually culminated in the abdication of Juan Carlos I on 19 June 2014 from the Spanish throne amidst increasing unpopularity and concerns for the viability of the Spanish monarchy as an institution. Later on, after Greece's King Constantine II, whose older sister is married to Juan Carlos and is therefore the latter's brother-in-law, demanded that the former Spanish monarch divorce his wife in order to preserve the latter's "remaining dignity", the Spanish royal couple officially divorced on 13 June 2019, thereby ending a roughly fifty-seven years long marriage. Following this, amidst claims of improper ties to business deals in Saudi Arabia, Juan Carlos went into exile in the United Arab Emirates whereas Queen Sofia, having reverted back to her previous style as Princess of Greece and Denmark following her divorce, returned to her homeland of Greece, thereby reuniting with her family members once more. Meanwhile, in 26 June 2020, Juan Carlos went on to wed his former mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, with whom he reportedly reconciled after divorcing his longtime wife.

Due to the high-profile nature of the individuals involved, coupled with its immediate ramifications, the incident has come to be seen as a major event in Spain's post-Franco history and has also been cited by some observers as one of the biggest potential causes for an abolition of the Spanish monarchy which was once previously abolished in 1931 via the formation of the Second Spanish Republic before being restored in 1975 by Juan Carlos I himself. Consequently, Felipe VI, the reigning King of Spain, has pledged a "clean break" from his father's controversies with the main aim of restoring the image and prestige of the Spanish monarchy, thereby potentially prolonging its existence and preventing yet another abolition of the institution. Conversely, on a personal level, the incident brought praise for Greece's King Constantine II, who was applauded by observers for standing up and publicly defending his older sister's honour and was therefore held up by critics as an admirable contrast to Spain's controversy-ridden Juan Carlos I. Regarding this, Kirsty Wark of BBC News said of the incident, "In the end, one king emerged as an apparent villain and outcast to his people while another king emerged as a hero not just to his people but most importantly to his own family". On 10 January 2023, Constantine II passed away at the age of eighty-two, thereby concluding an almost six-decades-long reign. Following this, his eldest son Crown Prince Pavlos succeeded him to the throne as Paul II.