The Spanish royal family has been rocked by an astonishing claim on social media that Queen Letizia had an affair during the early years of her marriage to King Felipe.
Businessman Jaime del Burgo, a Spanish/British entrepreneur who dated Letizia before she married Felipe in 2004 and who then married Letizia’s sister in 2012, claimed on X over the weekend that he and Letizia had romantic assignations after she married the now King Felipe.
Del Burgo shared an image of Letizia on social media in which she is visibly pregnant (her daughters were born in 2005 and 2007) and claimed that Letizia sent him the photo while they were having an affair with the message: “Love. I am wearing your pashmina. It is like feeling you by my side. It looks after me. Protects me. I am counting the hours until we see each other again, love you, get out of here. Yours.”
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In one archived message, he allegedly said that in July 2010 they told each other they loved each other and wrote, per Google Translate: “That same night, our love relationship continued, interrupted years before, because love had always been there.” He says in the post that they tried to figure out if Letizia could get divorced and they could have a child via a surrogate in Los Angeles. He later deleted the messages and his X account.
The unfounded claim came hot on the heels of the publication of a Spanish book, entitled Letizia y Yo (Letizia and I) by veteran Spanish journalist Jaime Peñafiel, which saw del Burgo claim Letizia told him that she loved him at the royal palace, La Zarzuela, and that Spain’s secret police kept him under surveillance for five years.
Per a report in the Daily Mail, he also said he was going to propose to Letizia but desisted when she told him about her relationship with the future king.
The book was reportedly heavy on hints but did not say anything specific about an affair after she married Felipe, but del Burgo took to X over the weekend alleging that they had indeed been lovers after her marriage to the now-king, who assumed the throne in 2014.
The Daily Beast contacted the Spanish Royal Family for comment, but was told no one was available.
Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia visit the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 8, 2023.
Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard/via ReutersThe Daily Telegraph reported that Carolina Alonso, spokeswoman of the anti-monarchist Unidas Podemos party, had said del Burgo’s messages were a “sexist attack on her privacy”.
Jaime married Letizia’s sister Telma in 2012, divorcing her in 2014.
In the book, del Burgo reportedly claims that he met Letizia the night before her royal wedding, writing: “When we met, she took hold of my hand and asked me why I had never asked her to marry me. Obviously I didn’t reply. I encouraged her as best I could. The last thing she said to me before we said goodbye to each other in that restaurant was a request: ‘Never leave me.’”
He claims to have “photographs, videos, mobile phones” among other evidence to back up his claims.
Del Burgo appeared Monday to have rebooted his deleted X account with just a single reposted Spanish message on it which read, per Google Translate: “Jaime Del Burgo is a patriot who has had to face ETA terrorism since he was a child. And he has reacted to avoid the tragedy designed by Sánchez, ETA, coup plotters and Letizia, who has been the Head of State since she manoeuvred to take King Juan Carlos into exile.”
Del Burgo is the son of a prominent Spanish politician, ETA is a separatist Basque terror group, Pedro Sanchez is the country’s Prime Minister, and former king Juan Carlos, who abdicated in favor of his son Felipe in 2014 amidst scandal, now lives in Abu Dhabi.
The Daily Beast has contacted del Burgo for comment.
