The name Laurence Debray is now closely associated with the honorary King of Spain, Juan Carlos. The French writer has not only become his biographer, but has also joined the monarch’s inner circle, accompanying him on trips and at public events. Her book “Mon roi déchu” (“My Fallen King”), published in 2022, was the culmination of years of admiration that began in her student days, when the young Laurence went to study in Seville and, to the surprise of many, decorated her room with posters of the Spanish ruler. Yet behind this almost filial devotion to the monarchy lies a completely different story—one filled with drama and revolutionary spirit—belonging to her own family, which she candidly described in her autobiographical work “Fille de révolutionnaires” (“Daughter of Revolutionaries”).
Despite criticism of her allegedly indulgent view of the mistakes made during the later years of Juan Carlos I’s reign, Debray’s intellectual credentials are indisputable. A graduate of the Sorbonne, where she studied history and literature, and later the prestigious London School of Economics, Laurence grew up surrounded by lofty ideals, but also emotional coldness. Her parents—René Debray, a prominent French politician, and Venezuelan anthropologist Élisabeth Burgos—were truly historical figures whose personal lives were deeply intertwined with the most turbulent events of the 20th century. Their romance began under highly unusual circumstances, which left a lasting mark on their daughter.
Father of Laurence, Régis Debray, as a very young man in 1960, went to Cuba during the height of the revolution. There, he met and befriended Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara. This friendship led him to join the guerrilla movement in Bolivia, whose aim was to overthrow President René Barrientos. However, the mission failed, and Debray ended up in prison. In 1967, he was sentenced to 30 years in jail. It was in his prison cell, on February 14, 1968, that he married Elizabeth Burgos. The darkest chapter of his biography is associated with accusations of betraying Che Guevara. It was believed that information obtained from Debray helped to track down and execute the legendary comandante. However, Laurence’s own investigation points to another person—the Argentine Ciro Bustos—as the true betrayer. Thanks to a major international campaign, which included Pope Paul VI, Charles de Gaulle, and André Malraux, Régis Debray was granted amnesty and released in 1970.
After his release, his revolutionary fervor gradually faded. Meeting Salvador Allende in Chile and witnessing his tragic death in 1973 during Pinochet’s coup led Debray to reconsider his views. He grew closer to French socialists and became foreign policy advisor to President François Mitterrand. Laurence’s mother, Elisabeth Burgos, also followed a path from active involvement in leftist movements in Latin America—including arrest in Peru—to becoming a respected cultural figure in France. She held positions as director of the Maison de l’Amérique Latine in Paris, cultural attaché of France in Madrid, and head of the French Cultural Institute in Sevilla, which laid the foundation for her daughter’s close ties to Spain.
Laurence Debray admitted that she always felt closer to her grandparents than to her famous but distant parents. In search of a father figure, she found ‘adoptive fathers’ in writer Jorge Semprún, politician Alfonso Guerra, and, of course, Juan Carlos I himself. It was to him that she dedicated her doctoral dissertation, and it was he who became the central figure in her life, changing it forever.
