It is difficult for the Spanish monarchy to improve its image in public opinion. While on the one hand he makes great efforts to discreetly bring King Juan Carlos closer, who traveled to Madrid to celebrate her eldest daughter Elena's 60th birthday, is hitting out after an alleged infidelity that Queen Letizia is said to have committed in the early years of her current marriage to King Felipe came to light. VI, von maintains a romantic relationship with his ex-brother-in-law Jaime del Burgo.
Although Jaime Peñafiel, a renowned journalist on real-world issues, He had already explained this in his most recent book Letizia and I: A post by Del Burgo himself on the X account gives more weight to what he himself tells in the book.
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The Spanish monarch's former brother-in-law uploaded a photo of Letizia wearing a black pashmina in what appeared to be a bathroom and when she was apparently pregnant. Alongside the photo, Del Burgo wrote: “Love. I'm wearing your pashmina. It's like I feel you next to me. He takes care of me. Protect me. I'm counting the hours until we see each other again. Loving You. Get out of here. Yours sincerely,” alluding to the alleged message the Queen sent him at the time.
But that was not all. In the same social network, Del Burgo referred to Peñafiel's book and was responsible for clarifying the different “stages” that the author of the publication highlights in his text. “1) Romantic relationship, from 2002 to 2004; 2) friends and confidants, from 2004 to 2010; 3) Long-lasting and continuous romantic relationship, 2010 and 2011; 4) As brother-in-law, 2012 to 2016.
It is the third relationship that ends abruptly after two years, a few months after Letizia Ortiz stepped down as Princess of Asturias.“They wanted to divorce Felipe and establish themselves as a couple in New York, which is what we had planned,” Del Burgo explained.
Although Del Burgo deleted the post shortly afterwards, he posted another one on the same social network explaining what had happened: “I don’t change any commas on my deleted posts. I welcome the messages from those who understood that I would have my reasons. I hold no grudge against those who threatened to kill me. I'm not proud. But the truth is what it is. I only recognize one king, he is in heaven and his name is Jesus of Nazareth. “He will judge me.”
According to Peñafiel's book, Letizia and Jaime had a romantic relationship between 2000 and 2004., that was last year when the then Prince Philip appeared on the scene. However, Letizia would have resumed her romantic relationships with Jaime between 2010 and 2011, when she was already married.
“They saw each other secretly and she was so in love with him that she wanted to leave the crown to go together,” the text says.
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It should be noted that Letizia's two pregnancies were one in 2005, when she was expecting Leonor, and the other in 2007, when she was carrying Sofía in her womb, so the image that Del Burgo shared with her followers is at the stage of would correspond to “friends and confidants” according to their own definition.
A challenge for the Spanish crown
The lawyer and businessman from Navarre, del Burgo, met Telma Ortiz, Letizia's sister, precisely through her and married in 2012. In 2014, they decided to end their relationship, apparently due to the fact that Jaime would not stop traveling for work. But shortly afterwards they realized that they wanted to stay together and continued their marriage. But in 2016 the final break came.
For her part, Letizia, who divorced after just a year of marriage from the writer Alonso Guerrero Pérez, whom she married in 1998, She married the then Prince of Bourbon in 2004 in a ceremony that captivated the press around the world. But according to his ex-brother-in-law, both had maintained a romantic relationship before this wedding and resumed it years later.
(You may be interested in: Queen Letizia, caught up in rumors of alleged infidelity with a former brother-in-law)
Peñafiel's book also points out that even a marriage proposal from Del Burgo would have been cut short due to the monarch's appearance in the former journalist's life.
“The marriage is in a bad situation,” Peñafiel said in an interview for Catalonia Radio., given the earthquake that occurred. “It's not new. It is known that Letizia is an unfaithful wife. The love of her life is Jaime del Burgo. He's my informant. The topic may now be brought up out of revenge. He tells things he shouldn't tell. In the book I count one percent. What I'm keeping quiet about is the most intimate part. According to Jaime del Burgo, Letizia had more extramarital affairs than him. Felipe is a poor man, he has no character. She is bossy. “You can’t have the life you want,” said the Corona expert.
Now those in the know are connecting the dots and coming to the conclusion that the crisis that Felipe and Letizia experienced in 2013 was and was not related to these alleged affairswhich was then attributed to the Nóos case – a tax crimes scandal involving Infanta Cristina and her ex-husband Iñaki Urdangarin – and the crisis resulting from the discovery of Juan Carlos I's affair with Corinna Larsen.
According to the Spanish press, members of the Borbón family knew about Letizia's infidelity, but remained silent at the request of the royal family.
This matter, as leaked, was the central theme at the banquet for Infanta Elena's 60th birthday last Wednesday, which her father, King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, attended with leaden feet. in one of the few visits to the country from Abu Dhabi, where he has been living in voluntary exile since 2020, when he left the country due to the scandal surrounding his ex-lover Larsen and the crimes attributed to him and from which he emerged unscathed.
Since then, The royal family is making every effort to improve the crown's damaged image. But it's not easy, because when you put out one fire, another, more intense one ignites.
The other revelations of the book Letizia and I
The love affair is not the only revelation in the book Letizia and I. Peñafiel, who never concealed his bad opinion of the queen, He reflects on his loved ones since he was very young.
For example, he said that years agoAt the same time, she had relations with Alonso Guerrero, who was her teacher and became her husbandand with journalists Jim Russo and David Tejera.
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“I don't know why Letizia was so desperate for company back then,” Peñafiel commented at the end of the 1990s.
She married Guerrero in 1998. “At that first wedding, they threw grains of rice at the bride and groom at the exit of the town hall. and then the ceremony continued with the celebration in a restaurant specializing in weddings and baptisms in Almendralejo, known as El Paraíso, presided over by an ice figure,” says Peñafiel’s book. “The second, in the royal palace, with Limoges dishes, silver cutlery and linen tablecloths,” he adds sarcastically, demonstrating the change from a humble life to the luxurious life of a queen.
In fact, it explains this contrast a little more. She says that she was certainly “tired of the more than modest life in Rivas Vaciamadrid, a modest suburb of Madrid, not even accessible by subway at the time, where he had lived since his father brought the family with him from Oviedo in 1987 to escape debts.”
He also narrates, and this is another bombshell he drops from the booko Felipe and Letizia met on October 17, 2002 at a dinner where a friend, she had relations with David Tejerawith whom she was pregnant.
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“She aborts because she knows that with this pregnancy she cannot become the future wife,” Peñafiel explained in an interview with Catalan radio. “She asked Felipe to remove the traces of the abortion in the clinic where she performed it so that no one would find out, and there she made a mistake because it is illegal.”he added.
The 91-year-old Peñafiel's books have always had a great impact in Spain. However, on this occasion he claims that they tried to cover up the scandal within the country and that they instead called him from countries such as Australia, England and France, where the scandal appeared on the covers of major magazines.
“Did something happen here? – he asks and answers himself: No.This is a broken marriage, it doesn't exist right now because it can't exist. “The scandals are public and perhaps not because of me, but because of the person who was Letizia's great love: Jaime del Burgo,” he assures.
JUANITA SAMPER OSPINA
TIME CORRESPONDENT
MADRID