Among all the audios of the secret conversations between Bárbara Rey and Juan Carlos I that OKDIARIO has exclusively obtained, this passage is almost without a doubt one of the most costumbristas. This part of the long list of conversations which served to blackmail the Crown, mixes suspicions of influence peddling with the concern of a mother who wants the best for her daughter Barbara and was capable of urging the monarch: “For the love of God, get my daughter a job!”.
And the monarch was, without a doubt, the most surprised by this episode that he himself later recounts to Bárbara Rey, while she appears disconcerted even if in reality it does not seem that way. It was Juan Carlos I who started the conversation with the star, very surprised, by telling him about the conversation with his mother: “Suddenly the phone rings, the number is directly yours, right? I understand, a lady comes out and says to me: I am Barbara’s mother».
Bárbara Rey’s reaction to the king’s revelation is at first perplexed: “What are you telling me! What did my mother call you?… But hey, how does she have the phone number? The present-day King Emeritus tells Bárbara Rey that his mother called him because she needed to see him. Before, the star’s mother explains how she obtained the head of state’s telephone number: “She called me, that she needed to see me… Then she told me: I looked in my daughter’s diary and saw that she had the number several times. And I know she loves him very much. I know he’s calling you or I know he is».
Call the head of state’s phone number
So, with this confidence in herself, as any mother would do with her son’s partner, Bárbara Rey’s mother behaves by calling the hotline of the Spanish head of state. A common scene in any household, except it involves asking the Crown to use its influence to secure a well-paying job for a member of your family.
In this context, Bárbara Rey tries to explain how her mother was able to obtain the direct telephone number of Juan Carlos I and dared to call him in person. “Well, my mother has known for a long time because you called Arturo Soria and you called me to various places and such and you talked to her several times and that’s why she asked me once,” this is how she tries to excuse her mother. star Bárbara Rey gets straight to the point: “But hey, he called you, why?”
“Poor girl, worried about her daughter”
The King explains to Barbara the objective of the star’s mother’s call: “The poor thing was worried about her daughter and said to me: For the love of God, get him a job! By God! I only want my daughter to work, because she is very good… You’re going to tell me! “I told him”.
At that moment, Bárbara Rey was even more outraged by her mother’s indiscretion and Juan Carlos I believed that it was a sincere indignation and tried to justify the star’s mother: “I…I felt sorry for him. I told him: Listen, write a letter to Manuel Bretón and then I’ll try to see if he can receive it in the near future, because now I’m going to Mauritania, I’m going abroad and I don’t know what… But don’t tell him anything, please, I’m asking you.”.
The king apologizes for not having “plugged it in”
The head of state justifies Bárbara Rey’s mother and even goes so far as to apologize to the star for not having achieved her professional aspirations: “I already told him that the attempts I made didn’t work and I…, I hope it works, what’s happening is that I don’t have the magic wand in my hand ». “And what did you tell him?”, asks Bárbara Rey to the monarch, who replies: “I told him that if he wanted to see me, he had to write a letter. I told him that I could not receive him for the moment, but that he had to write me a letter through Manuel Bretón, and so on, to the Palace of La Zarzuela. I was, really, even very moved. I have a hard time not understanding. I really think so. And I’m trying to see how I can get something, ’cause it ain’t easy“.
After these expressions of surprise and indignation on the part of Bárbara Rey in the face of her mother’s behavior, the star gets directly to the heart of the matter and it is now she who asks him favors to the king: “Well, now let’s talk about everything, isn’t there someone like that on Spanish television that you know, or something like that? For example, to contact Colom (then director of Spanish Television). As? what system is there? But arriving well, not arriving… I can call to request an interview, do you understand me? Do you know anyone?
The King responds to the battery of requests from Barbara with a “I don’t know, I don’t know at the moment, but I’ll think about it and see.” Barbara adds: “Well, think about it. A friend with whom you have a lot of trust, who also doesn’t need to know us, do you understand me?. “Yes, yes…”, replies the monarch. The moment softer between the two has passed and other interests are emerging on the horizon. In November 1994, Bárbara Rey began presenting the program “It’s a spectacle” on TVE with Ramón García.
