There Queen Letizia Did she really cheat on her husband, King Felipe VI? For months the newspapers have been reporting the stories of the alleged lover Jaime Del Burgo, the sovereign’s former brother-in-law. Apart from the scandalous revelations, however, the man has never shown evidence to support his words. The Royal House of Spain, as always, is silent, waiting for the storm to pass. A new book, however, risks calling everything into question, describing Letizia as a woman “cold, manipulative” and Felipe a husband devastated by constant betrayals.
Where were we?
In December 2023, the entrepreneur Jaime del Burgo wrote posts on X, quickly removed, in which he claimed to have been thelover of Queen Letizia of Spain. The man was married to the sovereign’s sister, Telma Ortiz, from 2012 to 2016 and now lives in London with his second wife, the lawyer Lucia Dìaz Liljestrom, with whom he had a daughter.
According to the version of events told by Del Burgo, the alleged liaison with Letizia began in 2000, and was then interrupted with royal wedding of 22 May 2004. In 2010 the two would meet again, but it wouldn’t last long: in August 2011 the Queen would definitively end the relationship with a phone call.
The businessman also stated that he had lent money to the family Ortiz to cover the expenses of Letizia’s wedding and to have helped the latter draw up the prenuptial contract. Not only that: Del Burgo also revealed an almost surreal detail about her: despite being married to Felipe, the sovereign planned to run away with her lover and have a child “using a surrogate in Los Angeles”.
In March 2024, the Queen’s former brother-in-law even imposed a sort of ultimatum on Spanish President Sanchez, challenging him to prove that his reconstruction of the alleged liaison was just a lie. In this way, however, Del Burgo would have behaved just like those conspiracy theorists who, unable to prove what they say, place the burden of proof on those who dispute them simply using logic and facts. Except that things don’t work like that: it’s the person presenting a theory who has to provide evidence, but so far Jaime Del Burgo he did not do so, limiting himself to sensational statements and the promise of a bombshell book on the matter.
During the same period he even deleted all posts on X and closed his own profileto then reopen it on May 1, 2024 and announce: “Nothing but the truth, the book I promised will instead be an eight-episode TV film and documentary. She will start producing it after the summer. It will arrive in 2025.”
“A cold and passive-aggressive woman”
In truth, Jaime Del Burgo has already narrated his version of events in a book, namely “Letizia y Yo” (“Letizia and I”), written by the journalist Jaime Peñafiel and published in November 2023. The work caused a certain stir, dividing public opinion into two parts: those who believe this story and those who, however, believe it to be nothing more than a gratuitous attack on the sovereign, a very simple system to discredit its image.
The author, however, did not stop there, although the book cost him his dismissal from El Mundo last January, after twenty years of collaboration: on 24 May 2024 a new volume was released which delves into the liaison between Del Burgo and the Queen, “Los Silencios de Letizia” (“The Silences of Letizia”). This time too the revelations are embarrassing to say the least and the image of the wife of King Felipe comes out in pieces.
According to Peñafiel, in fact, Letizia would be a woman “indestructible”, “cold and emotionally immature”from character “passive-aggressive”, “unfaithful”, but also “determined”. A person who would have no qualms about using the weapon of deafening silence to take revenge on those who do not respect his will, in a real war of nerves which would be nothing other than “a way to control and punish other people.” This attitude would have antagonized her all Spanish royal familystarting with Queen Emeritus Sofia.
In fact, relations between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were not always idyllic and this is nothing new. How to forget the quarrel occurred on Easter Sunday 2018, outside the Cathedral of Mallorca? However, this clash does not automatically confirm what Peñafiel wrote, which he even talks about “hate” and resentment that the King’s relatives have harbored for years towards Letizia. It’s not all. The journalist reported other serious rumors about Felipe VI’s role in this incredible affair.
“Fallen into Hell”
Until now, one figure in particular had remained on the margins of this story: Felipe VI. The versions of events given by Del Burgo in the posts on The gap, let’s call it that, is filled by Peñafiel in the second volume just published, “The Silences of Letizia”.
According to the journalist, the sovereign would always be “aware of the fact that Letizia was cheating on him in real time”. Not only would Felipe have been aware of the liaison, but even of the appointments that Letizia would have given to his “lover”. In fact, the bodyguards would be obliged, for security reasons, to report all the movements of the woman to the Palace Queen.
The book cites an emblematic episode in this sense, although it still needs to be demonstrated (like the entire reconstruction of events, after all): in 2011 the security escorted the King’s wife on a trip to New York in which Del Burgo would also take part: “That day [a New York Letizia]as always, he was with his faithful companions who, without a shadow of a doubt, reported to the Ministry of the Interior or to the Zarzuela Palace”. Felipe, informed of “betrayals”, would be “fallen into hell”, “crushed and destroyed” from events.
Peñafiel claims that at the beginning of her relationship with Felipe the Queen would have even “tested” his feelings, often leaving him alone, traveling from one part of the world to another: “It was a strategy, because that absence was a real torment for the very much in love Felipe, who conceived distance as the worst of evils…”. Returned to my homeland, after having verified the greatness of this “total love”, Letizia would have shown her nature “overbearing and manipulative”asking her future husband not to reveal hers to anyone relation with Del Burgo.
“They keep up appearances”
Felipe, fearing that the story of his parents would be repeated, of Queen Emeritus Sofia who closed herself in a dignified silence in the face of Juan Carlos’ betrayals, until the separation, she would have decided to make the best of it. The royals of Spain, says Peñafiel, “they only keep up appearances in public,” but in reality they would lead separate lives.
There are many questions that emerge reading these indiscretions: for example, if Felipe knew about Letizia’s alleged infidelity when they were still engaged and he suffered so much from it, why didn’t he simply end the story? The justification regarding the past of Juan Carlos and Sofia doesn’t hold up entirely, given that there hadn’t yet been any royal wedding, at least according to what Peñafiel reported. In any case, then, although divorces are always a prelude to gigantic scandals that drag on for a long time, they are no longer a taboo in royal families.
Furthermore, why wouldn’t Letizia have hidden the alleged relationship with Del Burgo? Her attitude doesn’t seem very smart. A “manipulator”, no matter how skilled, he should know that pulling too hard is always a risk. Some even claim that this whole story is nothing other than a revenge of the former King Juan Carlos, hostile to his son and daughter-in-law who would have sent him to exile.
The impression, however, is that someone wants to completely demolish Letizia’s image, discredit her in the eyes of the Spaniards and the whole world for unknown reasons. It seems that some character traits that the tabloids have always associated with the Queen have been exaggerated: for example, according to some, Letizia would be a rather severe woman, also with regards to the education of daughters. This severity, by pressing the hand, would become “coldness”the authoritarian appearance, however, would have been transformed into “handling”the force in a drift “passive-aggressive”.
Sowing doubt, then, is not that difficult: apparently the sovereign communicates stubbornness, determination, firmness, great energy, a tendency towards perfectionism.
Peculiarities that do not always and immediately inspire sympathy (often wrongly, because it is a prejudice and in any case it is used with a certain frequency against women in particular, but that is another matter) and certainly not sweetness. But, let’s repeat, it is a feeling which, however, could have been the fertile ground on which to build a negative image of Letizia of Spainshaded by shadows and suspicions.
