Another royal family's scandals - affairs, corruption and ex-king's sex drive
The British royals have provided so much scandal, drama and intrigue down the years that even six seasons of The Crown couldn’t cover everything.
But if the antics of the Spanish royal family were ever made into a TV drama, it would need a content warning. The Windsors have spent the past week grappling with the royal race row ignited by a new book by Harry and Meghan cheerleader Omid Scobie.
But a book-launched bombshell which has just landed on Madrid’s House of Bourbon is way more salacious. Queen Letizia’s ex-brother-in-law, Jaime Del Burgo, claims he had an affair with the royal before he married her sister, Telma – and that they were still romantically involved after Letizia’s 2004 wedding to King Felipe VI.
And this week, the entrepreneur, 53, who is based in the UK, shared a never-seen-before image of the Spanish Queen, 51, as “proof” of their relationship. In the selfie, taken in a bathroom mirror, the royal can be seen wearing a black pashmina. A message, which Letizia supposedly sent, reads: “Love. I wear your pashmina. It’s like feeling you by my side. It takes care of me. It protects me. I count the hours until we see each other again. Love you. Get out of here. Yours.”
It is not the first time Queen Letizia, as well as other prominent Spanish royals, have been embroiled in scandals that often make the our own royal family dramas look mundane. They include claims of serial cheating, sexual peccadilloes, love children, courtroom dramas and allegations of financial corruption – and all since just 1975, when the House of Bourbon first ascended to the Spanish throne.
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King Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letizia (Getty Images)The most recent claims were published last month in journalist Jaime Penafiel’s book Letizia & I. Jaime Del Burgo is quoted as claiming that the Queen asked to see him on the night of her wedding to Prince Felipe in May 2004.
He says: “When we met, she took hold of my hand and asked me why I had never asked her to marry me. Obviously I didn’t reply. I encouraged her as best I could. The last thing she said to me before we said goodbye to each other in that restaurant was a request: ‘Never leave me.’”
He claimed the affair went on for seven more years, until in August 2011 the future Spanish Queen abruptly ended their relationship. A year later, he got engaged to Telma after just two months of dating. They married in 2012 but separated after two years – something he also blamed on Letizia.
Ex-brother-in-law claims Queen Letizia had an affair with himThe King and Queen are putting on a united front, while the Spanish Royal Family has refused to comment on the claims. But in a family beset by claims of sexual misdemeanours and financial impropriety for decades, even their ascension to the Spanish throne was because of a scandalous affair.
The former King, Juan Carlos I abdicated in disgrace in 2014, leaving the throne to his eldest son and fleeing to exile in Abu Dhabi, following a series of embarrassing revelations, including claims he was a sex addict who had bedded thousands of women. The country’s affection for its monarch began to unravel in 2012, after the King – who was patron of the World Wildlife Fund – was photographed posing with a dead elephant on a hunting trip to Botswana.
Felipe VI and Letizia (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)The £50,000 trip, which ended when he broke his hip and had to be flown home in a private jet at taxpayers’ expense, also exposed the King’s cheating on Queen Sofia with his mistress, German entrepreneur Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who was on the safari with him.
Corinna, who is 27 years the King’s junior, later spilled the beans about their five-year affair, claiming Juan – who married Sofia in 1962 – would phone her at her office 10 times a day. She told how he would shower her with lavish gifts, including a £850,000 ring, flowers and love letters.
The businesswoman claimed Queen Sofia once confronted her about the affair in front of Juan Carlos at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid. She said: “Suddenly, Queen Sofia bursts into the room with a face like thunder. She pointed at me and said ‘I know who you are’. I obviously wanted to disappear into the ground.”
Jaime del Burgo with his former wife, Telma Ortiz (Europa Press via Getty Images)Officials said the controversial safari had been paid for by Mohamed Eyad Kayali, a businessman seen as a representative of Prince Salman of Saudi Arabia, who had awarded a £6billion rail contract to a Spanish company. Prosecutors dropped a fraud probe last year, saying they could not find a link. As monarch, Juan Carlos would have had constitutional immunity.
His abdication did not spell the end of the embarrassing revelations. In 2016, military historian Amadeo Martinez Ingles published a book claiming Juan Carlos was a sex addict who had bedded over 5,000 women.
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King Juan Carlos was forced to abdicate in financial scandal (Getty Images)In January 2017, it was claimed the secret service paid former Miss World contestant Barbara Rey millions in taxpayers’ money to gag her from revealing an affair with the King. And in October 2021, ex-police chief Jose Manuel Villarejo said the exiled King was “injected with female hormones to control his sex drive” because it was “considered a problem of state”.
Not that he is the only member of the family with such problems. Last year, photos emerged of Inaki Urdangarin, the husband of Juan Carlos’ youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, hand-in-hand with another woman.
Businesswoman Corinna zu-Sayn Wittgenstein had an affair with King Juan Carlos (Getty Images)Days later, the couple – who have four children and stayed together even when Inaki was jailed for fraud in 2016 – announced their marriage was over. The revelations about Letizia will be a blow to King Felipe VI, who publicly renounced his inheritance in a bid to break from his father’s legacy.
Many hoped the King could save the House of Bourbon – aided by his glamorous wife. That task could now fall onto Princess Leonor, the 18-year-old heiress presumptive and so far one of the only members of the family untainted by scandal or controversy.
Royal watchers believe she may be the family’s only hope of removing the stink of scandal. Then again, in this show, anything could happen.
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