‘Like Wallis and Meghan, I was blamed for a man’s downfall’
Lover of former Spanish king says alleged campaign of harassment ‘left no part of my life untouched’
‘There is a tendency that when people cannot control a powerful man, they destroy the object of his affection’
The woman at the heart of a corruption scandal that has shaken the Spanish royal family has compared herself to Meghan Markle and Wallis Simpson, as she claims she has been the victim of a harassment campaign.
Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said “hostility is always channelled towards the woman” as she described the media frenzy over her relationship with Juan Carlos, the former king of Spain, and alleged intimidation by Spanish secret service operatives in London.
In the most revealing interview she has given about the bitter aftermath of her break-up with Juan Carlos, she said Spain’s establishment and media had treated her like a modern-day Wallis Simpson, blamed as the woman responsible for the downfall of a king.
“There is a tendency that when people cannot control a powerful man, they destroy the object of his affection,” the 56-year-old Danish business consultant said.
“This narrative still survives to this day. You can even see it with Meghan and Harry. The hostility always goes to the woman and the poor man is this helpless creature who has been horribly manipulated and it is the woman who has plunged the country into a huge crisis.”
Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein’s name was first linked to Juan Carlos in 2012, when she claims her presence on an elephant-hunting trip with Juan Carlos was allegedly leaked by Félix Sanz Roldán, head of the Spanish secret service (CNI), to deflect criticism of the king going on a secret holiday in Botswana. Since 2018, she and other associates of the former king have been under investigation in Switzerland for alleged money laundering, leading to the revelation she received a gift of €65million (£59million) from him in 2012, the balance of a Panama shell company he set up with a $100million
(£77.4 million) “donation” from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. Anger over the 2012 safari and a separate corruption scandal involving Juan Carlos’s son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, prompted the king to abdicate in 2014.
When The Telegraph revealed in March that King Felipe had been named as a hereditary beneficiary to the Panama-domiciled “Lucum” fund, Juan Carlos’s son rejected any financial inheritance and vetoed annual stipends due to the old king. After being placed under investigation by Supreme Court prosecutors, 82-yearold Juan Carlos left Spain in August, flying to temporary exile in Abu Dhabi.
Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said in the weeks after the Botswana debacle, her apartment in Monaco was “occupied by mercenaries for six weeks”, with General Sanz Roldán allegedly telling her the agents were there for her security. On a trip to Brazil that same month of April 2012, Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein claims she was followed and another vehicle tried to run her off the road. She also claimed in a legal affidavit that on May 5 2012, General Sanz Roldán, who was CNI director from 2009 to 2019, visited her er in her room at the Connaught hotel l in London. “It was a very frightening tening conversation, like talking to Hannibal Lecter,” she said.
She claimed he said unless s she followed his instructions, he e could not guarantee her or her children’s ldren’s physical safety.
She said the general’s instructions were for her to not speak to the media and to o “motivate” Juan Carlos to stay ay on as king. He has not responded to her claims.
According to Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, the agents in her Monaco home took personal papers and professional contracts. This was, she claimed, the onset of a campaign to “collapse my financial and professional reputation”.
“I feel like I have been taken hostage to the will of at least two extremely powerful men, the former king of Spain and General Sanz Roldán,” she added.
Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein alleged that all of her family relationships had also been damaged by the whispering campaign against her. “This brutal campaign, executed with military precision, has left no part of my life untouched,” she said.
Reflecting on how many people seem to justify abuse against her because of the huge financial gift from Juan Carlos, Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said the trajectory her career was on eight years ago meant she would have earned the same amount of money if she had not been put out of business. “If I’d been given the choice between this gift and continuing with my career, I would have chosen my profession any given day.”
In 2019, Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said, her legal team approached Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia. “I asked him to put his weight behind stopping the abuse campaign by his father. If you cannot control your own family, how can you lead a nation?”
Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein claimed that King Felipe’s sole response was to distance himself from his father’s under-fire financial dealings, while ignoring her allegations.
She has repeatedly said she will be presenting a lawsuit in a UK court accusing leading members of the Spanish state of harassment.
In terms of the Swiss investigation, Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said she remains confident that no charges will be pressed against her.
She said she is confused as to why she has been questioned, unlike others who she said also received money from the same fund, such as another girlfriend of Juan Carlos’s, and the former king’s children, who she claimed had ha access to cash that was flown into Spain from the foundation’s Swiss ban bank account.
“From the outside, it looks like the royal fam family and anyone really close to them a are somehow excluded from this proc process,” she said.
Ms z zu Sayn-Wittgenstein claim claimed that during their rel relationship, which she says la lasted from 2004 to 2009, the then king took her on a tour of the Zarzuela Palace outside Madrid, including “the cash room”, which contained large quantities of paper money. “Cash is non-traceable so there was a lot of it in the palace. From w what he said to me, anyone w who needed cash helped th themselves to it,” she said.