Former Spain king Juan Carlos led ‘double life’ with German aristocrat: new book

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, April 23, 2015, 4:36 PM

This 2011 photo shows Spain's Queen Sofia with her husband King Juan Carlos (r.) at Madrid’s airport. A new tell-all says Carlos considered divorcing his wife while having a longtime affair.

Juan Carlos, the former king of Spain, had a longstanding affair with a German aristocrat while he was married, according to a new book that has sold out less than 24 hours after it debuted.

Carlos stepped down in June 2014 so his son, Felipe, could take the throne. He had once considered divorcing his wife, Sofia, over his mistress, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, according to the explosive tell-all written by journalist Ana Romero.

"They were a couple, pure and simple," Romero said of Carlos and his mistress at a book presentation Wednesday in Madrid, Agence France-Presse reported.

Her book, titled "Final de Partida" (End Game), is a look at the last four years of Carlos' time on the throne as scandal destroyed his reign.

"It is a chronicle of the end of an era, when Spaniards turned their backs on Juan Carlos," she said. The book's initial run of 25,000 copies was snapped up Wednesday and a second print run has been ordered.

The former king's affair with Sayn-Wittgenstein, the ex-wife of a German prince, became public in 2012, when Carlos was whisked home on a private jet after being hurt in an elephant-hunting safari in Botswana.

At the time, Spain was in the midst of an economic meltdown while experiencing record-setting unemployment. The then-king apologized, but his reputation never recovered and he abdicated two years later.

Carlos had led Spain into a democratic government after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco in 1975.