London: Princess Diana was apparently one of the many young ladies The King of Spain, Juan Carlos, had an affair with, a new biography has claimed.
The book by Barcelona-based author Pilar Eyre has also alleged that Carlos is a ‘professional seducer’ who made a ‘tactile’ advance on Princess Diana while she was on a holiday with Prince Charles in Majorca in the 1980s.
And it reveals that age has not stopped the 74-year-old, with the monarch regularly receiving vitamin injections and anti-ageing treatments, the Daily Mail reported.
The biography also claims that the King has not shared a bed with his wife for the past 35 years.
The Solitude of the Queen by Pilar Eyre, which will most probably be proved controversial in the Catholic country, follows the much-derided allegations made in 2004 by Lady Colin Campbell that the princess had a fling with Juan Carlos while on a cruise in August 1986 and then again the following April.
“Diana did it to make Charles jealous, but it didn’t work,” said Lady Colin.
“Charles couldn’t have cared less.”
During a 1987 visit, in which Charles and Diana went to Madrid, the King was clicked smiling as he kissed the princess on the hand – a gesture, which left Diana looking embarrassed.
Eyre has claimed that the Princess, together with Prince Charles and their young children, holidayed in Majorca with the Spanish royal family a number of times during the Eighties.
Charles never felt comfortable on the sunshine island and much preferred visiting the Duke of Wellington’s estate near Granada on the mainland where the shooting was good.
But Diana, who loved lounging about on yachts in stylish bathing suits, was right at home on the shores of the Mediterranean where she could flaunt her figure.
And the King, who appreciated displays of female beauty, apparently acted on an impulse to get closer to her.
After her first trip to Majorca in 1986, Eyre alleged that Diana told her bodyguard Ken Wharfe that Juan Carlos fancied her.
It seemed that the King made all kinds of excuses to get physical with her and used to love bending down with her and inviting her to stroke his old German shepherd dog, Archie.
According to Eyre, rumours of the affair deepened later over the curious case of some photos of Diana in a state of undress. These were hyped around the world’s publications, only to be taken off the market when someone in Spain paid 45,000 dollars for them.
That someone is rumoured to have been Juan Carlos, who wanted to guard the Princess’s reputation.
Miss Eyre’s book has also asserted that Queen Sofia has not slept in the marital bed since 1976 and only remains in the marriage out of ‘a sense of duty’.
ANI
