Since October 22 of last year, when Isabel Preysler’s memoirs went on sale, her rise among the best-selling books in our country has been unstoppable, driven by a carefully crafted promotional campaign that culminated with her appearance on El Hormiguero. The promise that the Filipino socialite would reveal the great secrets of her love stories, the criticisms of his conduct as a father by Julio Iglesias, or the content of the ardent love letters Mario Vargas Llosa wrote to her, have been enough lure for Mi verdadera historia to be a true bestseller.
But not everyone has welcomed the sixteen chapters of the queen of hearts’ autobiography. Specifically, there are two aristocratic voices that have spoken out loudly against its author: Syliane Vilallonga and Olivia de Borbón. They are joined as well by the already anticipated discontent of the family of the Peruvian Nobel Prize winner, which would even consider suing the Manila-based one, especially because of the publication of the writer’s intimate correspondence.
In statements to the program El tiempo justo by Álvaro, one of the three children Mario Vargas Llosa had with his wife Patricia Llosa, he claimed that «what Isabel Preysler has done is a genuine discredit to his father». The aforementioned, for her part, had appeared very calm about this matter during the presentation of her memoirs in Madrid, when she stated that »I do not fear reprisals from the Vargas Llosa family. He died while I was finishing the book. The letters are mine; I can publish them«.
The widow of José Luis de Vilallonga goes on the attack
Syliane Stella, the Marchioness of Castellbell, Grandee of Spain and heir to the copyright of her late husband José Luis de Vilallonga, is in the spotlight due to the imminent reissue of the only authorized biography of the King Emeritus, which the aristocrat wrote in 1993. The book will see the light before Juan Carlos I’s memoirs, written by Laurence Debray, go on sale, and Syliane has not hesitated to give her approval for its publication.
It was during an interview with Informalia about this book, titled The King, when the Monaco-born woman was questioned about her opinion on the inclusion of Mario Vargas Llosa’s personal letters in Isabel Preysler’s memoirs. And, certainly, Syliane Stella does not mince words when answering.
«What I don’t understand is that all of Spain is waiting for this lady. What has she done in life? She is not elegant, she just dresses well, but I don’t quite understand the interest she arouses,» she begins, while making clear her unfavorable view of the Filipino. «Regarding publishing Mario’s letters, I don’t understand that either. I knew him and I have many memories with him. It’s not true that he was ill-mannered, not at all,» she concludes, referring to the latest of the letters that appear in the book, in which Isabel Preysler breaks with the writer, rebuking him precisely for his lack of education.
Olivia de Borbón and the old wounds
Another person who is not at all satisfied with the content of My True Story is Olivia de Borbón, the daughter of the Duke of Seville. In her case, she has been especially upset by the portrait Isabel Preysler draws of her mother, Beatrice Wilhelmine Paula Gräfin von Hardenberg, who passed away in 2020.
A Olivia de Borbón no le ha sentado bien el libro de Isabel Preysler.
The wife of businessman Julián Porras Figueroa has not taken well the claim in the book that it was the Duchess of Seville who revealed to the magazine Hola! that Isabel Preysler was having a romantic relationship with Carlos Falcó at the end of the seventies, while she was still married to Julio Iglesias.
«Carlos and I managed to keep our relationship a secret for almost a year», reads the pages of the tabloid-worthy memoirs. «When Jaime Peñafiel, with Carmen Martínez Bordiú as a witness, reproduced the message someone had left on the answering machine, we recognized the voice: it was Beatriz von Hardenberg, Duchess of Seville, whose unmistakable German accent betrayed her. I never understood why she did it. I may have my suspicions», adds Isabel Preysler.
«We do not speak of the dead because they cannot defend themselves», declared an upset Olivia de Borbón, according to Informalia. «My mother suffered greatly from that unfounded rumor and even on her deathbed she lamented that such a lie was being said», adds the woman who will soon become Duchess of Seville, a title she has already formally requested.
