Spain’s former King Juan Carlos sued by ex-mistress over 'unlawful surveillance’

Spain's former King Juan Carlos has tumbled into a fresh pool of controversy on Wednesday after his ex-mistress rumoured to be his ‘longtime partner’ announced that she was ‘suing’ him in the High Court in London for putting her under ‘illegal surveillance’ in the UK. According to the claim filed by Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein against the ex-Spanish monarch in December last year, accessed by the state and foreign broadcasters, Carlos had subjected her to the harassment “from 2012 until the present time.” 

The accusations against Spain’s former monarch range from threats to defamation, and “unlawful covert and overt surveillance” of her ex-lover by the agents of the Spanish secret service and intelligence agencies. Reports reveal, that the latter is now seeking damages and a restraining order against Carlos, but the ex-Spanish monarch, who had abdicated in 2014, has denied any wrongdoings. His legal team meanwhile is yet to file a defence motion in the court. 

The 56-year-old Danish businesswoman Sayn-Wittgenstein was introduced to Carlos at a shooting party in 2004 and had earlier told British broadcaster BBC that she was impressed with the then Spanish King’s knowledge of the firearms, that onset an affair between them. Having spoken over the phone for few months the duo decided to go on a date. The two found common ground over similar interests related to politics, history, fantastic food, wines, she told the network. The entrepreneur had then just started her consultancy business and was a single mother of two. 

Affair exposed in public over 'elephant killing' 

Carlos proposed Sayn-Wittgenstein in 2009, after allegedly ending a 20-year relationship with another woman. In 2012, Carlos and his partner embarked on a trip to Botswana, where he shot an elephant before fracturing its ribs. This invited an emergency reparation —and his affair was exposed in public. The controversy intensified with Carlos making payment of €65m to his former lover from the $100m gift to him from the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. As their relation soured, Juan Carlos asked for the money back, which Sayn-Wittgenstein declined to hand over. The ex-Spanish King accused her of stealing the funds and defaming King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.

While Sayn-Wittgenstein later claimed that she ended her relationship with Carlos in 2009, she alleges that the Spanish National Intelligence Agency, CNI, and its then head Félix Sanz Roldán, had started spying on her. The filing reportedly reads that she was “under physical surveillance which included vehicle and personal surveillance, trespassing on to her property at which she was residing and hacking into her/their telephones and computers”.