Former Miss World was paid millions of pounds by Spanish secret service to keep quiet about her affair with King Juan Carlos I, it is sensationally claimed

  • Ex beauty queen Barbara Rey allegedly paid millions by Spain's secret service
  • Cash was to keep quiet about affair with King Juan Carlos I, it has been claimed
  • Rey has denied claims and the Spanish Royal family has declined to comment
  • The King was rumoured in a book to have once made a pass at Princess Diana 

By Gerard Couzens for MailOnline

Published: 07:07 EST, 18 January 2017 | Updated: 10:11 EST, 18 January 2017

A former Miss World was paid millions of pounds by Spanish secret services to keep quiet about her affair with King Juan Carlos I, it was sensationally claimed today. 

Ex beauty queen Barbara Rey had the cash paid into an offshore account to make sure she kept quiet about her long-standing romance with Juan Carlos I of Spain, it is claimed.

He has been described in a devastating book as a professional seducer who had bedded more than 1,500 women and who once made a pass at Princess Diana.

Ex beauty queen Barbara Rey (left) had the cash paid into an offshore account to make sure she kept quiet about her long-standing romance with Juan Carlos I of Spain (right with Queen Sofia), it is claimed

King Juan Carlos I has been described in a devastating book as a professional seducer who had bedded more than 1,500 women and who once made a pass at Princess Diana

The claims were made by respected Spanish news website OKDIARIO and were immediately picked up by other Spanish media who focused on the shocking allegation that the money allegedly paid to Ms Rey, the country's Miss World candidate in 1971, came from public funds that should have been spent on fighting terrorism and organised crime.

The news website said a spy from intelligence organisation CESID - the equivalent of MI5 and MI6 in Britain - met the blonde in a cafe in Madrid and offered her three million euros (£2.6 million) in monthly payments to buy her silence.

It also published papers claiming to show the intelligence agency opened an account on September 25 1996 at a Luxembourg bank in the name off an offshore company which 160,000 euros (£139,000) was reportedly paid into three months later.

OKDIARIO said the cash Ms Rey, the ex-wife of a former circus entertainer, received was designed to make sure she did not leak videos and photos that would have confirmed the long-standing rumour she was Juan Carlos' on-off lover.

Barcelona-based author Pilar Eyre said the Spanish monarch (left) made a pass at Primcess Diana (right) during a holiday Diana and Charles spent with their son at the king's summer palace in Majorca in 1986

Barbara Rey, who made it to the last 15 of Miss World after getting a shot at the title when the winner of Miss Spain 1970 surrendered her crown, has denied receiving any money from Spain's old intelligence agency which has now changed its name to the CNI.

She has also insisted she has never had a bank account in Luxembourg in her name.

The Spanish Royal family and their spokespeople have declined to comment.

The astonishing claims about the use of taxpayers' money to prevent the alleged affair becoming public has revived the mystery surrounding a burglary at 66-year-old Rey's Madrid home in June 1997 in which she claimed documents, negatives and video tapes which could compromise 'important people' had been stolen.

Juan Carlos I reigned as King of Spain from 1975 to 2014 when he abdicated in favour of his son Felipe VI.

He has three children with his wife of 75 years Sofia. Their relationship since his abdication is said to have been virtually non-existent and it has been claimed they last shared a bed nearly 40 years ago.

Juan Carlos had to make a grovelling apology in April 2012 over a controversial elephant hunting trip to Botswana at the height of Spain's economic crisis

Barcelona-based author Pilar Eyre, an expert on the Spanish royal family, made the explosive claim about Juan Carlos and Diana in a book she published in 2012.

She said the Spanish monarch made a pass at her during a holiday Diana and Charles spent with their son at the king's summer palace in Majorca in 1986.

According to Eyre, the king made a 'tactile' advance to Diana, then just 25.

Diana herself denied anything untoward had happened but admitted that while the king was 'charming' he could be a 'little too attentive.'

Juan Carlos had to make a grovelling apology in April 2012 over a controversial elephant hunting trip to Botswana at the height of Spain's economic crisis.

The trip came to light after he broke his hip in a fall and had to be flown back to Madrid for surgery

Belgian housewife Ingrid Sartiau launched a paternity suit against Juan Carlos shortly after his abdication, claiming her mother told her: 'That man's your father' when he flashed up on television before revealing details to her of a one-night stand in Luxembourg in 1966.

Spain's Supreme Court announced in March 2015 it had refused to accept Ingrid's lawsuit.

A spokesman for Spain's Royal Family said today: 'We have no comment to make about the claims made by OKDIARIO about Barbara Rey, Juan Carlos I and the use of public money.'

 

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