Alleged illegitimate child of former King of Spain drops dead in bar

At around 10pm on Saturday (8 October), a waiter collapsed in a Catalan bar and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man who died was called Albert Sola, and Sola spent much of his life trying to prove he was the illegitimate son of King Juan Carlos I, Spain’s former monarch.

Sola ordered a glass of wine at a bar in the town of La Bisbal d'Emporda shortly before he dropped dead. 

According to MailOnline, the 66-year-old had met a friend after work at the bar after finishing work. 

YouTube/TV Sabadell Vallès

Police sources have said Sola died of natural causes, but his post-mortem results are yet to be made public. 

A woman who witnessed Sola's sudden death over the weekend told Spanish press: “He arrived with a friend, asked for a glass of wine, took hold of it and when he was heading to the table the friend was already sitting at, he keeled over. He didn't even have time to try the wine.”

UNILAD has approached the Police of Catalonia for comment. 

King Juan Carlos, who was a guest at Queen Elizabth II’s funeral last month, was dubbed a ‘sex addict’ by Amadeo Martinez in the latter’s best-selling 2016 biography, Juan Carlos I: The King of the 5,000 Lovers.

In the past, Sola said he had DNA tests that showed a 99 percent match with his and Juan Carlos’s DNA, but Spain's Supreme Court refused to admit his paternity lawsuit in 2015, ruling the tests invalid. 

Sola's appeal to Spain’s Constitutional Court was not successful. The late father-of-two was adopted as a child and had claimed his mother met the King in Barcelona during the 1950s.

At the time, Juan Carlo was studying at a military academy in Zaragoza.

WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

However, last year, the New York Times called Sola's paternity claim ‘unverified by almost anyone’s standards’.

Rebeca Quintáns, a Spanish author who wrote a biography of Juan Carlos, told the outlet in 2021: “It’s a case that could bring trouble for the monarchy.”

But María José Esteso Poves, who wrote a book about Spain’s ‘stolen babies’, insisted: “Albert’s case is feasible since in that time, when a woman became pregnant with an illegitimate child, you hid the children and gave them to other families.”

Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 and has lived in Abu Dhabi for two years after fleeing Spain in the wake of multiple finance scandals. 

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