The image is blurry but the seductive smile of Juan Carlos, hugging the presenter Barbara Rey, then aged twenty-six, is recognizable among thousands. Published exclusively by the Dutch tabloid Privateit causes astonishment in Spain.
The emeritus king’s love affair with the woman who was a television star is no longer a secret in the peninsula. However, no photograph showing them together had ever circulated. When the couple separated in 1994, after an episodic relationship that began in 1976, Barbara Rey demanded financial compensation and obtained it without difficulty when she announced that she was in possession of audiovisual material proving the intimate nature of her relationship with the king.
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Private returns to this story thanks to the photos provided to him by Barbara Rey’s son, Angel Cristo. The latter in fact reveals having been, at the age of 13, his mother’s accomplice in blackmailing the King of Spain. Now aged 43, the man would have wanted revenge for having been forced to secretly film and photograph his mother’s meetings with the sovereign.
The former television star says she is devastated by the theft. “These photos are my private life. I would like to point out that my son was never the author.” Saddened to see her private life exposed in the press, Barbara Rey announces that she wants to take her son to court. A procedure which will further contribute to stirring up the past of a king who is decidedly too human.
