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Juan Carlos’ ex-mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn has labelled the former King of Spain ‘unhinged’ and claimed he used to call her 10 times a day at her office using a fake name.
The 57-year-old – who had a five-year affair with the European monarch from 2004 – will appear in the new investigative podcast series called Corinna and the King, which will delve into the start of her relationship with the former King and how it eventually played a key part in Juan Carlos’ abdication in 2014.
Launching next week, the series – which has been created by journalist Bradley Hope – is likely to coincide with Corinna’s High Court case against Juan Carlos for alleged harassment and spying.
The Danish businesswoman said that she felt ‘married’ to Juan Carlos, 84, during their relationship and described him as the ‘husband of [her] heart’, The Times reports.
Describing him as ‘funny and quite persistent’ albeit in an amusing way, she labelled him, ‘one of the biggest seducers in the royal world’.
And she admitted she was happy to carry on their affair because she ‘felt like his wife’ even though she knew he was seeing multiple other women behind his wife Queen Sofia’s back.
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 pictured arriving at the court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on March 29, 2022
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
Corinna and Juan Carlos were lovers for five years and she described how she felt ‘married’ to him in this time. The Spanish King pictured greeting his lover at the Laureus Awards in Barcelona on May 22, 2006
Corinna explained that she first met the then-King at the Duke of Westminster’s estate La Garganta in southern Spain when they both attended a hunting party.
That evening, the mother-of-two – who was married but separated from her second husband Prince Casimir zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn at the time – says she made an impression on the King by breaking royal protocol and leaving the table before he was finished eating.
Her boldness obviously impressed the King because after the countryside getaway ended, Corinna claims the King started sending her flowers and love letters every day.
The following year, the businesswoman separated from her husband and she says the affair with the King only became more intense as the years went on.
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
Using the fake name ‘Mr Sumer’, Corinna claims Juan Carlos would call her ’10 times a day’ at her office in Madrid.
The former monarch had chosen the pseudonym as ‘Sumer’ is an acronym of ‘Su Majestad el Rey’, which translates as His Majesty the King.
Although Corinna tried to pass it off as a business call, she said colleagues could see through the pretense because they recognised the King’s ‘booming and distinctive’ voice.
Corinna’s new podcast series will also cover her involvement in Juan Carlos’ money-laundering investigation in Switzerland and Spain.
Following their break-up, Corinna claims the former monarch harassed her into returning €65 million [£56m] that he had transferred into her bank account in 2012.
Corinna described her ex-lover as ‘ruthless and unhinged’ after he allegedly spied on and harassed her into returning the €65 million he had transferred into her bank account in 2012
This sum was a key aspect of the corruption case brought against the ex-King, which led to him fleeing to Abu Dhabi in 2020.
He fled after Swiss prosecutors opened an investigation into bank accounts allegedly held by Juan Carlos in tax havens.
Spain launched its own investigations based in part on information shared by Switzerland including one about cash the former king allegedly received as part of his involvement in a high-speed Saudi Arabia rail contract.
Aisde from a brief visit to Spain earlier this year to attend a sailing regatta in Galicia, when his son King Felipe refused to allow him to stay at the royal palace, he has stayed away.
But all charges against him were dropped in the last year because of a lack of evidence, immunity he experienced as head of state and the statute of limitations expiring.
The decision was taken after he paid millions of pounds in tax regularisations.
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 her High Court claim, Corinna alleges Juan Carlos caused her ‘great mental pain’ by spying on and harassing her.
However, Juan Carlos has always denied any wrongdoing against his ex-mistress.
Lawyers representing Juan Carlos argued he is ‘entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of the English courts in his capacity as a senior member of the Spanish royal family’.
But after a hearing in London in March, High Court judge Mr Justice Nicklin ruled against the former king, saying the claim can now go ahead.
The former King abdicated in 2014 due to a separate public outcry involving marital infidelities.
King Juan Carlos I, 84, was pictured arriving at the ‘reception of the century’ at Buckingham Palace with Queen Sofía amid an alleged row with the Spanish government over his attendance at Her late Majesty’s state funeral
King Juan Carlos I, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, was invited to the late monarch’s funeral by Buckingham Palace, but the Spanish government has reportedly asked him not to attend. The late Queen and disgraced King pictured watching a flamenco dance display at the Alcazar Palace during an official tour of Spain in 1998
In September 2022, Juan Carlos defied the Spanish government’s request not to attend the King’s funeral.
Spanish news outlet El Debate reported that Juan Carlos, the late Queen’s cousin, was asked by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchéz to let his son and his wife Queen Letizia travel to the UK alone.
The government reportedly made it clear they wished for King Felipe VI, Carlos’s son, to be the Spanish representative at the state funeral, as his father was still awaits trial in the UK for the harassment case.
Despite once counting himself among the world’s most popular monarchs, polling showed that approximately two-thirds of Spain wanted the king to abdicate when he stepped down — underlining how quickly public opinion can shift.
Juan Carlos returned to Spain for a brief visit in 2022 but has spent the past two years living in exile in Abu Dhabi.
All the trips of Don Juan Carlos makes abroad are carefully observed by Spanish officials, according to El Mundo, with the government keenly aware of the history the monarchy has played in shaping the state.
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