King Juan Carlos I has denied having an affair with the late Diana, Princess of Wales in a shocking new memoir, set to be released next week. Spain’s former monarch, who abdicated in 2014, spoke about his relationship with the British royal.
There has long been speculation that Juan Carlos seduced the Princess at the Marivent Palace in Palma de Mallorca, where then Prince Charles and Diana spent three consecutive summers with their young sons, Princes William and Harry, between 1986 and 1988.
In the book titled Reconciliation: Memoirs of Juan Carlos I of Spain, which was written by French journalist Laurence Debray, Juan Carlos describes Diana, who died in 1997, as a “cold, taciturn, distant woman, except when there were paparazzi” and denies having had an affair with the Princess.
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Diana’s biographer, Andrew Morton, later quoted her as calling Juan Carlos “a very libidinous man”. According to his book, Ladies of Spain, released in 2013, Diana is said to have said of the then Spanish king: “I felt uncomfortable being left alone with him in a room, although I can assure you that nothing happened.”
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Juan Carlos is still married to his wife of 63 years, Queen Sofia, although they have been estranged for a number of years. The former monarch lives in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates, while Sofia has remained residing in Spain, still carrying out charitable work and supporting her son, King Felipe, his wife, Queen Letizia, and their family.
Photo: Anwar Hussein/Getty
Juan Carlos’s extramarital affairs, including with Danish businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, played a part in the decline of his reputation. While he was internationally acclaimed for steering Spain from dictatorship to democracy in the 1970s, it was a string of scandals that further damaged his public image and led to his abdication.
Photo: Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty
A 2012 elephant hunting trip to Botswana sparked outcry during Spain’s economic crisis. Juan Carlos later moved to Abu Dhabi in 2020 after his financial affairs were placed under investigation in Spain’s supreme court, but no charges were brought against the former king. The book will first be published in France next week and in Spain three weeks later.
