‘It was a circus to keep him happy’: Juan Carlos’ ex-mistress reveals former Spanish King ‘couldn’t bear the thought’ of spending Christmas with family and ordered ‘fake’ celebration with ‘people he liked’
- The mother-of-two had an affair with the King from 2004 to 2009
- She claims the King held two Christmas celebrations before he abdicated
- Businesswoman says the celebration on December 22, 2013 was ‘surreal’
- Corinna claims the former monarch harassed and spied on her after their affair
Juan Carlos’ ex-mistress Corinna Zu-Sayn Wittgenstein has claimed the former Spanish King ‘couldn’t bear the thought’ of spending Christmas with his family and ordered a ‘fake’ celebration with ‘people he liked’.
The German businesswoman, 57, appears in the new investigative podcast series Corinna and the King, which delves into her relationship with the former monarch and how it eventually played a key part in Juan Carlos’ abdication in 2014.
In the latest episode, the mother-of-two claimed the King demanded she attend a ‘fake’ Christmas celebration at her ex-husband Philip Adkins’ Spanish country home in December 2013.
Corinna had first met the King during a hunting getaway hosted by the Duke of Westminster in La Garganta, northern Spain in 2004 and was romantically involved with him for five years.
Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 and handed over the throne to his son King Felipe amid a money-laundering scandal. King Felipe VI of Spain (second left), his wife Queen Letizia (far left), their daughters Princess Sofia (front left) and Princess Leonor (front right), former King Juan Carlos I (second right) and his wife former Queen Sofia (right) pose before attending the traditional Easter Sunday Mass of Resurrection in Palma de Mallorca on April 1, 2018
Corinna Larsen, 57, is pursuing a High Court case against her former lover Juan Carlos, 84, for alleged harassment and spying. The mother-of-two is pictured arriving at Women4Walkabout Ladies Luncheon at Claridge’s in June 2017
In podcast series, Corinna revealed she first met the then-King in 2004 at a hunting party in Southern Spain. The pair pictured at the Schloss Schockingen castle in Stuttgart, Germany on February 2, 2006
Despite once seeing him as the ‘husband of her heart’, Corinna says their relationship went downhill in 2009 after Juan Carlos found another mistress while she was caring for her cancer-ridden father.
Although they had been separated for four years by the time Corinna was invited to the Christmas celebration, she says the King still relied heavily upon her – especially after their affair had been exposed during a controversial $60,000 hunting trip in Botswana and his daughter Princess Cristina was facing tax evasion claims.
The former monarch’s ex-lover claims the Spanish Royal Family were reportedly already making plans to prepare Juan Carlos’ son Felipe to take over as King in late 2013.
‘The relationship in the family had deteriorated to such a degree that he said he couldn’t bear the thought of spending Christmas with his family,’ she said. ‘He was dreading to go home.’
The ex-lovers pictured at the Laureus Sports Awards at Parc del Forum in Barcelona on May 22, 2006
Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein appears in the new investigative podcast Corinna and the King, documenting her affair with Juan Carlos and how it played a key role in his 2014 abdication. Pictured in St Petersburg in November 2017
As such, Corinna claims Juan Carlos hosted a Christmas celebration for the ‘people he liked’ three days early on December 22, 2013.
Describing how the monarch was surrounded by ‘drooling sycophants’, she continued: ‘We’re just part of some sort of circus performance to keep this powerful man happy and whatever he articulates as a wish must come true […]
‘He does two pretend Christmases. One is the pretend, happy Christmas with the people he likes. And then comes the pretend real Christmas with the people he can no longer stand.’
The former mistress claims the King demanded that the ‘surreal’ celebration be just like Christmas – complete with presents, bottles of champagne and a traditional feast.
What’s more, Corinna says the King then started acting like they were back together and demanded to see her on his birthday just a few days later.
Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 and handed over his throne to King Felipe. He denies ever harassing or spying upon his ex-lover
Corinna and Juan Carlos were lovers for five years and she described how she felt ‘married’ to him in this time. Pictured in New York in September 2014
Elsewhere in the podcast, Corinna claims that Juan Carlos was bought a £50m London townhouse by the Sultan of Oman near her flat in Belgravia.
The former mistress says the King – who was forced to abdicate the throne in 2014 amid money laundering allegations – also asked her to decorate the property just like hers.
In the same episode, Corinna claims Juan Carlos gave her €65m as a ‘gift’ after the news of their affair following their Botswana trip left her reputation in tatters.
However, she claims he later proceeded to ‘harass’ her into returning the amount – as the sum was a key aspect of the corruption case brought against the ex-King, whose extramarital affairs and widespread corruption caused the Spanish monarchy to plunge in popularity.
Later this year, the details of the ex-lovers’ relationship will be sensationally read out in London’s High Court as part of Corinna’s ongoing legal case claiming that Juan Carlos harassed and spied on her after their relationship ended. He denies ever harassing or spying upon his ex-lover.
From trying to woo Princess Diana to being ‘injected with testosterone blockers’ to control his sex drive – the VERY colourful love life of Spain’s greatest seducer
He was the King of Spain from 1975 until his controversial abdication in 2014 – and during that time, Juan Carlos is rumoured to have had relationships withover 5,000 women.
In October, an ex-police chief sensationally claimed in a parliamentary hearing that the exiled former Spanish king Juan Carlos was ‘injected with female hormones to control his rampant sex drive’.
Jose Manuel Villarejo also said the disgraced former monarch, now living at a luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi, was given testosterone blockers by the Spanish secret service after his libido was categorised as a ‘state problem.’
Villarejo, a former Spanish Police commissioner currently on trial in a blackmail case, said, according to The Times: ‘[The National Intelligence Centre (CNI)] injected female hormones and testosterone blockers to control his libido because it was considered a problem of state that he was so horny.’
Danish-German philanthropist Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, Spanish singer Sara Montiel, Belgian governess Liliane Sartiau and Italian princess Maria Gabriela de Saboya are just some of the women he is rumoured to have bedded besides his wife, Queen Sofia.
News of the disgraced former king’s legendary libido are not new, however. It comes after a Spanish author and military historian Amadeo Martinez Ingles wrote a book entitled ‘Juan Carlos: The King Of 5,000 Lovers’, piecing together evidence of his sexual history and painting the king as a rampant sex addict.
Spanish royal family expert Pilar Eyre said the former King attempted to bed Princess Diana, claiming Juan Carlos made a ‘tactile’ advance to Diana when she was just 25
Princess Diana is rumoured to have been just one of the young ladies the ex-king pursued in a romantic career in which — like his namesake, the seducer Don Juan — he is said to have bedded almost 5,000 women.
Villarejo, who has been accused of spying on and working to discredit some of Spain’s most high-profile politicians as a key figure in the nation’s ‘sewer politics’, also insisted he was asked to get rid of medical documents which would have proved the medication went on.
He denied having any involvement in the effort to bring Juan Carlos’ notorious sex drive under control and said he found out about it from Corinna Larsen, a former lover of the ex-monarch now living in London.
Larsen, also known as Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, 58, had an affair with the 84-year-old monarch – who is married to Queen Sofia, 84 – between 2004 and 2009.
One of Juan Carlos’ early sexual encounters is said to be with Maria Gabriela de Saboya, daughter of the last king of Italy (pictured 1966)
In his explosive book published in 2016 called ‘Juan Carlos: The King of 5,000 lovers’, author Martinez Ingles dubbed the ex-king a sex addict and said he had hundreds of relationships even after marriage to his wife Queen Sofia in 1962.
The book claimed he had had 62 lovers in one six-month period alone, and during his ‘passionate period’ between 1976 and 1994, the king had slept with a staggering 2,154 women.
Spanish royal family expert Pilar Eyre has corroborated Martinez Ingles’ claim that the former King attempted to bed Princess Diana, saying said Juan Carlos made a ‘tactile’ advance to Diana when she was just 25.
Diana herself denied anything untoward had happened but admitted that while the libidinous king was ‘charming’ he could be a ‘little too attentive.’
One of Juan Carlos’ early sexual encounters is said to be with Maria Gabriela de Saboya, daughter of the last king of Italy.
Later, Juan Carlos, who was crowned king in 1975, allegedly became estranged from his wife after the queen found him in a compromising position with Spanish actress and singer, Sara Montiel.
It is rumoured that Queen Sofia caught him in the act with Montiel just weeks after their coronation, but she denied any affair.
An explosive book published in 2016 called ‘Juan Carlos: The King of 5,000 lovers’, dubbed the ex-king a sex addict, claiming he had hundreds of relationships even after marriage to wife Queen Sofia in 1962 (pictured together in 1994)
In January 2017 it was claimed spymasters paid a former Miss World contestant millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to stop her spilling the beans on her supposed affair with Juan Carlos when he was still King of Spain.
Former beauty queen-turned-actress Barbara Rey reportedly had the cash paid into an offshore account to make sure she kept quiet about her long-standing romance with the ex-monarch.
A Belgian housewife has also claimed to be the daughter of Juan Carlos, alleging that the former King had an affair with her mother, governess Liliane Sartiau.
In 2015, her daughter Ingrid brought a paternity suit to the Spanish courts. But the writ was thrown out on the basis of the king’s ‘legal inviolability’ under Spanish law.
Spanish waiter Albert Sola also claimed around the same time as Ingrid that he was an illegitimate son of Juan Carlos – but his attempts to be recognised failed early on.
In a bid to save the monarchy, Juan Carlos handed over the throne to his son Felipe in 2014 as the full extent of money laundering came to light.
He fled the country after Swiss prosecutors opened an investigation into bank accounts allegedly held by Juan Carlos in tax havens.
After putting himself in a self-imposed exile in the UAE in 2020, the former King then settled a tax debt of more than £600,000 with the Spanish tax authorities.
Commenting on the money-laundering claims, Corinna said: ‘It became clearer and clearer to me [that] he was conducting not just a double life, he was conducting a quintuple life.
‘There’s something quite unhinged about him and something quite ruthless. It’s all about self-preservation. Imagine that someone who says you were the love of their life would frame you in a criminal investigation.’
In an earlier episode of the podcast, the businesswoman claimed Queen Sofia once confronted her about the affair in front of Juan Carlos at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid – but wouldn’t divulge when the alleged incident took place.
‘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,’ Corinna said.
She added that her royal lover ‘seemed completely taken aback and unable to actually cope with this aggression’ as he watched it unfold.
