Exiled Juan Carlos may have helped leak rumours of Spanish Queen’s ‘affair’ in revenge move

Spain’s former king may have played a part in leaking rumours that Queen Letizia had an affair with her brother-in-law, observers believe.

A royal scandal erupted last week when Jaime del Burgo claimed in a series of social media posts, later deleted, that he and Queen Letizia had an affair after she married King Felipe, Juan Carlos’s son and successor on the Spanish throne.

Mr Del Burgo, who was married to the Queen’s sister between 2012 and 2016, alleged that as well as having been a boyfriend of the Queen’s before her 2004 marriage, he had a “long-lasting, continuous loving relationship” with her between 2010 and 2011.

Federico Jiménez Losantos, a veteran journalist whose radio show is among Spain’s most popular, has now blamed supporters of the former king for the emergence of the damaging revelations.

“It’s the ‘nth’ campaign orchestrated against Felipe VI,” Mr Losantos said, adding: “It is Juan Carlos’s circles who are stirring it up.”

Spanish media outlets have quoted sources close to Juan Carlos explaining that the former monarch, who abdicated in 2014 and now lives in Abu Dhabi, is upset at being frozen out of the royal family since a series of alleged financial irregularities and extra-marital affairs came to light.

Juan Carlos is said to have been particularly hurt by not being invited to attend the Oct 31 ceremony in Spain’s parliament at which his grand-daughter, Princess Leonor, was sworn in as a full-fledged heir to the throne.

The former king flew in for a private family celebration of Leonor’s 18th birthday and left the same day. “He left in the same sadness as he arrived,” a friend told the online newspaper El Español.

‘Campaign to smear Felipe’

Some of Mr Del Burgo’s claims of a close relationship with Letizia after her marriage are included in a recently published book Letizia y yo (Letizia and I) by Jaime Peñafiel, a veteran royal observer.

According to Mr Peñafiel, the bad relationship between Queen Letizia and her father-in-law played a role in the decision taken by King Felipe, in consultation with the Spanish government led by Pedro Sánchez, to arrange for Juan Carlos to secretly fly into exile in August 2020.

“It is true that there is a campaign to smear Felipe’s reign stemming from the very ranks of the monarchy,” said Pilar Eyre, a veteran royal reporter.

Ms Eyre said that Juan Carlos is planning a major celebration of his 86th birthday at his Abu Dhabi home on Jan 5 with prominent Spaniards invited as a way of showing that he can still command support.

“He wants it to be a show of strength, against what he believes is a campaign against him led by Felipe and Letizia,” Ms Eyre told the TV3 public television station in Catalonia.

The royal household has not commented on any of the recent allegations, and nor has Juan Carlos.

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