Exiled former Spanish King Juan Carlos will reportedly fly to London from his Middle East bolthole next week for a private lunch with King Charles III. The controversial 85-year-old royal, who has been at the centre of corruption investigations in his homeland and a long-running and ongoing legal battle with his former lover, is expected to make only his second visit to Spain since his shock departure in August 2020.
Leading Spanish daily El Mundo is reporting he will travel from London to the Galician resort of Sanxenxo, one of the places he visited in his first return to his homeland in May last year following his move to Abu Dhabi nearly three years ago, to take part in a regatta.
Juan Carlos joined his son, Spain’s current King Felipe VI, and other members of its royal family including Felipe’s former TV news journalist’s wife Letizia Ortiz, at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral last September.
The Spanish government described his trip at the time as “private”, insisting Juan Carlos’ son and daughter-in-law were the only royal representatives there in an official capacity.
El Mundo says Juan Carlos was initially planning to make a new trip to Spain in mid-May but decided to bring his plans forward to next week because it was an “inadequate date” so close to local and regional elections on May 28.
The former king, who is still married to his wife Sofia despite his numerous extra-marital affairs, has been accused of making a pass at Diana when she was just 25 during a holiday she and the then-Prince Charles spent in Majorca in 1986.
Spanish royal expert Pilar Eyre made the claim in a 2012 book.
Diana herself denied anything untoward had happened but admitted that while the libidinous former king was ‘charming’ he could be a ‘little too attentive.’
A 2017 book by Spanish society writer Amadeo Martinez Ingles dubbed Juan Carlos a “sex addict” and claimed he bedded almost 5,000 women.
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Apart from his extramarital dalliances, said to have spurned secret love children, the former Spanish king has found himself at the centre of corruption investigations and been accused of harassment by former lover Corinna zu Wittgenstein-Sayn in a case heard by London’s Court of Appeal last year.
UK Court of Appeal judges ruled in December Juan Carlos, who reigned as King of Spain from 1975 to 2014 when he abdicated in favour of his son, he had immunity for the period before he abdicated.
Her claim, launched in London’s High Court, will be heard at a trial expected to be later this year.
Their relationship remained a secret until 2012 when it emerged they had been on safari together to Botswana at the height of Spain’s economic crisis.
The trip came to light after the former monarch broke his hip in a fall and he had to be flown back to Madrid for surgery.
Juan Carlos left Spain for a luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi after Swiss prosecutors opened an investigation into bank accounts he was accused of having 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.
The scandals he was caught up in left his reputation in tatters, although the investigations into him for alleged corruption and tax fraud were archived after he deactivated the possibility of legal action by paying off his tax debts.
Earlier this year it was reported businesswoman Corinna zu Wittgenstein-Sayn, 57, was selling her stately home in Shropshire after telling friends she fears for her safety.
Juan Carlos is now a tax resident in the United Arab Emirates.
