Mistress of Spain’s former King Juan Carlos claims he hired a spy chief

Spain’s royal family is facing a scandal as a former royal mistress is set to testify in court that she was hounded by a spy after falling out of favour with the clan. 

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, a German businesswoman who used to be a lover of Spain’s former King Juan Carlos, was initially due to give evidence on Monday in a Madrid court.

However, the hearing was cancelled because of coronavirus. 

She claims that the former head of the country’s National Intelligence Centre, General Felix Sanz Roldan, carried out an intimidation and harassment campaign against her under the orders of Juan Carlos. 

After she joined him on a controversial hunting trip to Botswana she claims that she got a text message from a security company who said her ‘friends in Spain’ has asked them to take care of her and had put French Foreign Legionnaires at her Monaco flat. 

In her affidavit, seen by the Sunday Telegraph, she says she believes that the company was hired by Roldan as a cover to search her flat for anything that could be embarrassing to the King. 

She says that after she refused them entry, she received messages which she believed to be threatening. 

She claims that the former head of the country’s National Intelligence Centre, General Felix Sanz Roldan, carried out an intimidation and harassment campaign against her under the orders of Juan Carlos (pictured with Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein)

She met with Roldan at the Connaught hotel in London in May, 2012. 

‘His words were that he ‘could not guarantee [my] physical safety or that of [my] children,’ unless I complied with his instructions,’ she said in her written testimony. 

She claims the harassment continued and includes unexplained break-ins at her British home. She is believed to be preparing a lawsuit against the Royal Family at the High Court in London. 

The scandal has thrown even more doubt on to the Spanish Royal Family, which came under fire last week when it was revealed that 52-year-old King Felipe is named as a beneficiary of an offshore fund holding a €65million gift from Saudi Arabia given to his father (pictured with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in 2006) when he was on the throne

The scandal has thrown even more doubt on to the Spanish Royal Family, which came under fire last week when it was revealed that 52-year-old King Felipe is named as a beneficiary of an offshore fund holding a €65million gift from Saudi Arabia given to his father when he was on the throne.   

Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein’s legal team have written to the Foreign Secretary to flag the potentially explosive diplomatic implications of such a move and the heads of MI5 and MI6 to say that Spanish intelligent agents have been running a rogue operation on British soil.

Roldan denies the allegations. Both him and the Spanish Royal Familyi declined to comment.