Royal heartbreak.
After 24 years of marriage, Princess Cristina of Spain and her husband Inaki Urdangarin are splitting up. The former couple announced their breakup in a joint statement to Spanish state-owned newswire EFE on Jan. 24.
"By mutual agreement we have decided to break off our marriage," read the statement, per a translation service. "Our commitment to our children remains intact. Since this is a private decision we ask the utmost respect of all those around us."
Inaki and Cristina, who has been living in Switzerland, share four children: Juan, 22, Pablo, 21, Miguel, 19 and Irene, 16.
While the breakup statement sounded cordial, the split isn't without drama. A week before the announcement, Spanish tabloid Lecturas revealed photographs of Inaki, 54, holding hands with another woman during a visit to southern France, as seen in The Daily Mail. The mystery woman was later identified as Ainhoa Armentia, 43, a Spanish accounting analyst, according to The Times.
Inaki, a former member of Spain's handball team, seemed to confirm the extra marital affair to local reporters on Jan. 20.
"These things happen," he said, as reported in Express. "It is a difficulty that we will manage with the utmost tranquility and together as we have always done."
Pablo also allegedly addressed his parents' split to the press, stating, "We are all going to love each other the same."
This is hardly the first scandal involving the Duke and Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, who married in 1997. In 2018, Inaki was found guilty of embezzlement, influence-peddling and tax fraud via his non-profit organization the Noos Institute, according to the BBC. He was sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison by Spain's Supreme Court, per Reuters.
Last year, Inaki was granted permission to move to the Grade 3 Spanish prison regime. According to Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS, this flexible system allows convicts day release, spending only the nights of Monday through Thursday in prison.
Cristina, 56, was also charged with being an accessory to tax fraud along with more than a dozen other defendants in the embezzlement scheme. In 2017, the BBC reported that Cristina was acquitted in a tax fraud trial. However, she was required to pay a fine of €265,000.
She and her then husband were stripped of their royal titles by her older brother, King Felipe, in 2015. She remains sixth in line to the throne.