Know why King Felipe VI of Spain has banished father Juan Carlos from country

Juan Carlos, former king of Spain, has been banished from the country by his own son, King Felipe VI, while he deals with a series of corruption allegations against him.

Disgraced former King of Spain, Juan Carlos, who has been placed under investigation for corruption, claimed on Monday that he has decided to leave Spain to help his son King Felipe VI "exercise his responsibilities."

"Guided by the conviction to best serve the people of Spain, its institutions, and you as king, I inform you of my decision at this time to leave Spain," he wrote, adding that he made the decision "in the face of the public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating" and in the hope of allowing his son to carry out his functions as a king with "tranquillity".

However, a source has claimed to Daily Mail that the step was taken by the current king himself to protect his family amid his father's scandal.

The sources claimed that King Felipe wants to save his family from "certain happenings" relating to Juan Carlos's relationship with his German mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. The former king as well as Sayn-Wittgenstein are being interrogated in connection to audio recordings of a meeting between the latter and retired Spanish police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo at her London home in 2015.

In the audio, which was purportedly recorded a year after Juan Carlos abdicated the Spanish throne for his son to take over, Sayn-Wittgenstein can be heard claiming that the former king received a secret commission for helping to win a £5.5 billion Saudi rail deal. Meanwhile, commissioner Villarejo asked the German businesswoman for a meeting under the pretense that Spain's intelligence services were plotting to implicate her in criminal activity, and then went on to leak the tapes of their conversation to the media.

A source told The Times that Sayn-Wittgenstein, ex-wife of German Prince Johann Casimir, was "different" for Juan Carlos than his other girlfriends. The Spanish royal who is married to Princess Sofia of Greece and Denmark for 58 years as of now was "absolutely besotted" with the philanthropist. The former couple who reportedly dated from 2004 to 2008 is already facing other legal troubles in Switzerland, where an inquiry is underway over secret offshore accounts linked to them.

Though Juan Carlos cannot be persecuted as he has immunity as the former king of Spain, he will have to answer questions from prosecutors as he is still accountable to the Supreme Court. Spokespersons for the Royal Palace and lawyers for the disgraced royal have refused to give further comments on his departure from the country.

Meanwhile, several reports in local media claim that the former king who is insisting on his innocence has travelled to the UAE after leaving Spain for an indefinite period of time. A photograph obtained by Spanish outlet NIUS showed him arriving in Abu Dhabi, while some reports claimed that the 82-year-old is occupying an entire floor at the city's five-star Emirates Palace hotel.

It is also said that the former monarch who ruled for nearly 40 years was close to Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

This is not the first time that Juan Carlos has found himself in the midst of a corruption scandal. In June 2014, he had to abdicate his throne due to public uproar surrounding an elephant-hunting trip he undertook with Corinna during a time of financial crisis in Spain as well as a corruption investigation involving Iñaki Urdangarin, husband to his daughter Cristina.

This is not the first time he is in exile either. The father-of-three was born in Rome during his family's exile after the abolition of the monarchy in Spain during his grandfather Alfonso XIII's reign in 1931.