From affair claims, corruption to public fights – inside the mad world of Spanish royals

Every family has its drama, and the royals are no different. The Spanish royal family has had its fair share of high profile feuds and arguments, with major controversies not dissimilar to something you would see in a ‘Real Housewives’ episode. 

The Spanish monarchy is currently headed by the House of Bourbon, with King Felipe VI and Queen Leitzia on the throne. Queen Letizia is a divorcee, and was a journalist for ABC and CNN prior to her marriage to King Felipe of Spain, which some argue made her an unlikely candidate to be a royal spouse.

The Spanish Queen is at the forefront of most of the royal tensions, with shocking allegations of an affair resurfacing this week. Queen Letizia’s former brother-in-law, Jaime Del Burgo has repeatedly claimed that he and the royal had a relationship during her marriage to King Felipe. 

Del Burgo posted an undated selfie of the Spanish Queen on X, formerly known as Twitter, on December 26. He said that the photograph showing Leitizia to be pregnant was “evidence” of their relationship. 

The entrepreneur also posted a message that he claims was sent to him by Letizia, reading: “Love. I wear your pashmina. It’s like feeling you by my side. It takes care of me. It protects me. I count the hours until we see each other again. Love you. Get out of here. Yours.”

In another post shared to X, Del Burgo commented on their alleged relationship, and said: “Resentment? I am not able to feel it. I don’t hate either. I don’t remember hating anyone throughout my life. If you let them in, you will never be happy.’ 

“I think what I need is to let go of some ballast, put an end to a long chapter and draw conclusions that help us improve. And to do this you have to report your own and other people’s mistakes. Because you learn from mistakes.

The businessman continued, commenting on the monarch’s politics: “Letizia plays on the left (she is, at heart, anti-monarchist, anti-Catholic, communist, etc), she always has been and I have loved her the same because of her political tendencies.”

Speaking about the King and Queen, he said: “Both are only interested in one thing, like Juan Carlos, like anyone else: maintaining the crown that the French gave them 300 years ago in 2024 and the privileges that come with it. 

“Only by living within the walls of the palace can one realize the absolute power that the institution exercises and the fanaticism that it generates around it. 

“The crown belongs to the Spanish people, it is not the property of a family, Franco gave it to the Bourbons, he is the origin of its legitimacy.” 

A video of Queen Letizia emerged in 2019, showing the Spanish royal family at a ceremony in Britain. In the footage, the monarch can be seen approaching her mother-in-law, the former Queen Sofia. 

Letizia goes to put her arm on her eldest child, Leonor, who was 12 at the time, only to be pushed off by Sofia. According to royal correspondents, this spat was due to the fact that Letizia was reluctant for Sofia to take photographs with her grandchildren. 

Marie Chantal of Greece, who is Queen Sofia’s niece, commented on the high-profile hiccup on X, formerly Twitter, replying to a news outlet’s account of the event with, “Is this true?”

The royal family member then expressed her anger online, and angrily tweeted: “No grandmother deserves that type of treatment. Wow she’s shown her true colours.”

The public reaction to the row showed the clear cracks forming in the foundation of the relationship between the Spanish queen and her subjects. Prior to her marriage to Felipe, she divorced her first husband, to whom she was married to for four years. 

After their split, Felipe, who at the time was the Prince of Asturias, proposed to the middle-class journalist with a 16-baguette diamond engagement ring. Their whirlwind romance saw them married less than six months later, at a beautiful wedding in Madrid’s Cathedral Santa María la Real de la Almudena.

Juan Carlos I abdicated the throne, and Letizia was appointed the Queen of Spain in June of 2014, as the first Spanish queen born as a commoner.

Letizia was caught up in a controversy in 2016, when texts supporting a businessman at the time being accused of corruption emerged.

The Queen and King Felipe pledged support to the financial chief in the texts published by El Diario. This led to the palace being forced to state the couple were no longer friends. 

It was this row that saw a huge collapse in the relationship between Letizia and her mother-in-law Sofia, who was once very supportive. In Letizia’s engagement announcement, she acknowledged the former queen, stating: “From now on, and more and more, I am going to integrate fully in this new life with the responsibilities that come with it and with the support and affection of the king and queen and the priceless example of the queen.”

Spanish newspaper El Pais claimed that the relationship crumbled because of the daughters of Letizia and Felipe: “Sofia was accustomed to visiting the girls every so often until it was made clear that she was not welcome, given that her presence interrupted the routine of the young girls.

Despite the fact that the former king and queen and the current monarchs live in houses in La Zarzuela palace separated by just a kilometre, Sofía has complained in small circles of the little contact she has with her granddaughters.”

The private row only became public when Letizia refused to let Sofia have her photo taken with her grandchildren, reported the publication. This public outburst led to the downfall of the reputation of the King and Queen in Spain. Months after the video emerged, a poll found just 35 percent of Spaniards wanting to keep the monarchy compared to 48 percent who wanted a republic.

Irrespective of the spat, much of the wariness may be down to national controversies, including the uprising in Catalonia, which the King has publicly spoken out against.