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  • Q & A: Who is who in the Juan Carlos I and Corinna Larsen scandal

Last Monday, the Casa del Rey confirmed what was already an open secret: the King Emeritus Juan Carlos I is in the United Arab Emirates. Just three days later, the BBC publishes an exclusive interview with Corinna Larsen, the "close friend" of the monarch whose revelations have led to a scandal that has precipitated the departure of Juan Carlos from the country.

The German businesswoman of Danish origin reviews in her conversation with the British chain her five years of sentimental relationship with the emeritus and their subsequent friendship, and does not avoid entering into the controversy about the monarch's opaque accounts abroad, although she does not confirm the information on a possible illicit origin of that money: "I leave that to the Swiss prosecutor," he says.

"Pushing me with that is not the right way to move on," he abounds, "because I think that, in that case, everyone has to give it all back. What seems extraordinary to me is that they are turning 40 years of modus operandi of a family business into a focus on one person. And that person is me ... Because there will be hundreds of accounts in other jurisdictions. "

Corinna Larsen received from the King Emeritus in 2012, after the scandal of the trip to Botswana of the still King, an "unsolicited gift" in the form of a donation for herself and her son, a succulent donation of 65 million euros that, according to the Swiss prosecutor that investigates Juan Carlos' accounts, would come from a deposit of 100 million dollars whose origin would be related to commissions charged by the former head of state for mediating in the works of the AVE in the desert.

"I was very surprised because obviously it is a hugely generous gift," says the businesswoman in her interview with the BBC. "I will say, however, that we had discussions in 2011 about her desire to manage her living will. She started talking about her death and what she wanted to leave in her will." "She also mentioned that she wanted to take care of me, but we did not discuss amounts. She was concerned that her family would not respect her will," she stresses.

The donation after Corinna's complaints, who said she was harassed by the CNI , intensified and she flew to Madrid to thank him for his generosity: "I think he was very surprised to understand the extent of the pressure they had put me under and the destructive effect on my reputation, "he recalls. For her, the gift was motivated by love: "I think it was recognition for how much I meant to him, how much it meant to him," she says. "It was gratitude for taking care of her during her worst moments."

However, two years later, the same year as his abdication, the King allegedly asked Corinna to return the funds to him. "In 2014 he made desperate attempts to get me back with him," she says. "At one point he realized that he wasn't coming back and he was completely furious. He asked me to give him everything back. I think it was just a tantrum."

The businesswoman is summoned to testify on September 8 as being investigated for an alleged commission to Commissioner Villarejo to obtain information on a Spanish personal assistant whom she suspected could be leaking information about her private life. The judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón has authorized the businesswoman to testify by videoconference from London .

"I never got to pursue the idea of ​​the wedding because I thought it could destabilize the monarchy"

Corinna Larsen's romantic relationship with King Juan Carlos dates back, as she tells the BBC, to February 2004, when they met at a shooting party. He was having trouble with his gun and she explained what was wrong: "He was quite surprised." After months of telephone conversations, the first date arrived with the summer. "We always laughed a lot. We connected immediately on many things and had many interests in common: politics, history, good food, wines ...", he recalls.

"The first year was more difficult because I was so busy and he had a full schedule, but he called me up to ten times a day. I mean, it immediately turned into a very strong, deep and meaningful relationship." The businesswoman insists on the seriousness of this relationship during his interview. In that, and in which the King had assured him that his relationship with Queen Sofia was merely institutional: "He said that they had an agreement to represent the Crown, but that they had totally different and independent lives."

"The king had just come out of a relationship of almost 20 years with another woman who also held a very important place in his heart and life," says Corinna. In 2009, Juan Carlos I visited Corinna's father to convey that he intended to marry her: "He also told my father that he could not do it right away, that it would take a while. He wanted my father to know that he was serious with me" . According to her, the emeritus had already proposed to her directly that same year.

"I was very much in love with him, but I anticipated - I am a political strategist - that it was going to be very difficult. And I thought it could destabilize the monarchy," he says, "that's why I never got to pursue the idea of ​​the wedding. I just took it as a test of the seriousness of the relationship, rather than as something that was actually going to materialize. "

The break would come abruptly that same year, after the funeral of Corinna's father: "To my great surprise, just after the funeral, the king told me that he had been in a relationship with another woman for three years," he says, "simply I was not expecting it after he had asked me to marry him and after visiting my father. I was very ill for a few months. "

The relationship between the two became friendship: "I made it very clear that I would not tolerate having relationships with other women at the same time. Even Corinna was by the King's side when he underwent surgery for a lung tumor in 2010: "I slept on a sofa next to his bed before the operation because I was very nervous," he says, "when Queen Sofia and some of her courtiers realized how serious the king was with me developed a fairly high level of hostility. "

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