Queen Letizia's very own annus horribilis: As the former news reader turns 52, how she has remained quietly committed to duty and family amid accusation of years-long affair with former brother-in-law

As Queen Letizia of Spain today celebrates her 52nd birthday, she will no doubt hope it will mark the end of her very own ‘annus horribilis’.

It has been a year in which her reputation has been publicly dragged through the mud amid lurid allegations of infidelity and marital strife at the Zarzuela Palace.

She may also spare a thought for the British royal with whom she shares a birthday – Prince Harry, who today turns 40.

Letizia has had to endure the harsh taste of public opprobrium in recent months, after veteran Madrid journalist Jaime Peñafiel claimed she had engaged in a secret affair with her former brother-in-law.

But unlike the Duke of Sussex, Letizia has neither sought publicity by selling her story to Netflix nor attempted to exorcise her demons by publishing a hand-wringing, tell-all book.

A very miserable looking King Felipe and Queen Letiza of Spain at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in July

Letizia has had to endure the harsh taste of public opprobrium in recent months, after veteran Madrid journalist Jaime Peñafiel claimed she had engaged in a secret affair with her former brother-in-law. Above: The royal couple earlier this year 

The King and Queen celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary this year

Instead, she has maintained a dignified silence, dutifully appearing whenever required alongside King Felipe – her husband of 20 years – and their two daughters, 18-year-old Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and Infanta Sofia of Spain, 17.

The scandal first surfaced in December last year when Peñafiel – who was for 20 years editor in chief of the gossip magazine Hola! – published his revelations of discord in the bestselling book ‘Letizia & I’.

The dust had barely settled when he released a follow-up, ‘Letizia’s Silences’, in May.

It included claims that King Filipe was left ‘crushed and destroyed’ after royal bodyguards informed him of his wife’s alleged infidelity with Jaime del Burgo. 

It was claimed that Del Burgo went on to marry Letizia’s younger sister Telma just months after Letizia allegedly ended their affair, but the couple divorced two years later. 

Remarkably, the revelations appear to have done little to change Spanish popular perception of Letizia.

She has long divided opinion in the traditionally Catholic country both because she was divorced before she met Felipe and because she is the first commoner – the granddaughter of a taxi driver – to marry into the Spanish royal family.

Her supporters dismiss the allegations against her as a crude, unsavoury and snobbish smear, pointing out that the hardworking Letizia has been a modernising influence on the sometimes stuffy Spanish royals.

The stylish former newsreader, who was a household name in Spain even before she married Felipe, is known for championing Spanish fashion brands.

She also prominently supports the national women’s football team and carries out a busy schedule of charity work that is very much modelled on the British Royal Family.

The Queen concentrates on women’s issues (including a campaign to end domestic violence), children’s rights, health and the arts.

Letizia Ortiz was a familiar face in Spanish households as a stylish newsreader

There was a tense exchange between Letizia and her mother-in-law at the La Seu Cathedral in Palma de Mallorca in 2018

It was suggested in the Spanish press that Letizia made it clear that Queen Sofia  was not welcome to visit as it disrupted the girls’ routines but Letizia’s mother Paloma Pocasolano was known to visit frequently. Above: The family at the christening of Infanta Sofia in 2007

Her supporters dismiss the allegations against her as a crude, unsavoury and snobbish smear, pointing out that the hardworking Letizia has been a modernising influence on the sometimes stuffy Spanish royals. Above: Letizia during an engagement in Madrid in January this year

Much like Kate Middleton, she is said to be keen for her family to mix with ordinary people.

Indeed, the Spanish royals are often seen out with friends at Madrid’s theatres, cinemas, restaurants and bars.

She has also been known to clash with her mother-in-law, Queen Sofia, over the children’s upbringing.

Footage of the Spanish royals on their summer holiday in Majorca that year appeared to show Letizia and her mother-in-law ‘tussling’ over the young girls.

Queen Sofia was seen attempting to pose for a photo with her granddaughters, while Letizia appeared to stand in the way of the cameras.

It was later suggested in the Spanish press that Letizia made it clear to Queen Sofía that ‘she was not welcome’ to visit to the palace because it disrupted the girls’ routines. 

Meanwhile, Letizia’s mother Paloma Rocasolano was known to visit frequently.

Others have suggested that the close attention she pays to her daughters’ upbringing and education has strengthened Letizia’s position at the palace. 

One sign of her power to smash through royal protocol and tradition is the fact that she arranged for both girls to be sent to Britain to complete their education at Atlantic College, an international school on the rugged South Wales coast.

Letizia’s supporters also point out that the attacks on her come from Spain’s traditionalists, as well as those who champion minor members of the royal household who have become sidelined as the King, Queen and two princesses have taken more of the limelight.

Indeed, Peñafiel is 92 years old and a staunch traditionalist with links with the older generation of Spanish royals.

In his book he lashes out at the Queen’s ’emotionally immature and passive-aggressive’ behaviour, calling her ‘cold, indestructible and determined’.

He also claimed she is ‘hated’ by her wider family, particularly Felipe’s mother and sisters Infanta Cristina and Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo.

After the book’s publication, Peñafiel – who has been described by some critics as the queen’s ‘greatest enemy’ and a man who wants ‘to end her career’, was summarily sacked by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo after 20 years as their royal columnist.

Peñafiel is 92 years old and a staunch traditionalist with links with the older generation of Spanish royals

Peñafiel with the then Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon (left) at the Zarzuela Palace in 1962

Jaime Del Burgo with his ex-wife Telma Ortiz, Queen Letizia’s sister, before their wedding in 2012

Jaime del burgo claims he met Letizia in 2000, when she was still a newsreader 

Del Burgo claims Letizia sent him the above image, which appears to show her posing in front of a bathroom mirror

Furthermore, the main source for his books appears to be Jaime del Burgo himself, who claims he met the former Letizia Ortiz in 2000 when she was still a newsreader and insists he was in a relationship with her both before and after she married Felipe – then the heir to King Juan Carlos I – in 2004. 

He even claims he was on the cusp of proposing to her when she divulged her fledgling relationship with Spain’s future king.

Peñafiel’s book includes a claim that del Burgo accompanied Letizia on a trip to New York as late as 2011 – the year before he married her sister.

In the book, he is also quoted as saying that Spain’s CNI intelligence agency placed him under surveillance for five years and even broke into his home in Switzerland. 

Del Burgo said the alleged operation did not achieve its presumed objectives as he had placed everything to do with his relationship with Letizia – ‘photographs, videos, mobile phones, text messages’ – in a bank vault.

Peñafiel goes on to say that the King and Queen are now living separate lives, and ‘just keeping up appearances in public’.

In an interview with El Cierre Digital, he added: ‘I don’t think they even live under the same roof… Felipe is a good person, as I have said already. 

‘He’s putting on a brave front and Letizia has done him a lot of harm… I don’t think there will be a divorce, but there could be an agreement like the one [Felipe’s parents] Juan Carlos and Sofia established in which each one leads their own life.’

But a recent poll for Hola! magazine found that 61 per cent of Spaniards believe Letizia has strengthened the royal family.

That suggests that they don’t want the Spanish monarch and his wife to follow in the footsteps of Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, who are said to be estranged because of countless affairs on his side.

The former King abdicated in 2014, citing ‘personal reasons’, and has been living in self-imposed exile in Dubai since 2020 amid a damaging series of corruption allegations.

He has been accused of secretly receiving millions of pounds in kickbacks from a multi-billion pound deal to build a railway in Saudi Arabia, among other shadowy business deals.

He was also embroiled in a court battle with one of his many ex-lovers, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, who accused him of mental torture, spying and harassment.

Infanta Cristina, the younger of Juan Carlos’s two daughters, was also accused, but later cleared, in a corruption case that saw her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, jailed for nearly six years for embezzling more than £5 million in public funds. 

The couple divorced and Cristina was stripped of her title as Duchess of Palma de Mallorca.

The murky recent history of a royal family who were only restored to the Spanish throne in 1975 after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco has done much to bolster public support for Letizia.

‘If what Peñafiel intended was to discredit Letizia, his move has gone wrong,’ Spanish journalist Rosa Villacastin said after the book was published. 

‘Women and many men are in her favour and against the machismo of those who believe they are better than anyone else. 

‘That the granddaughter of a taxi driver today is the Queen of Spain is something to be proud of.’

Carolina Alonso, regional spokeswoman of the left-wing Podemos group in Madrid, said del Burgo’s messages were a ‘sexist attack on her privacy’.

Meanwhile del Burgo, a former tax lawyer, would-be film producer, tech entrepreneur and property developer, claimed in a post on X that Peñafiel had not told the whole truth in his book.

He insisted that he and Letizia had been lovers ‘at the end of 2014’, months after Felipe was proclaimed king.

Letizia poses with the women’s Spanish basketball team at the Paris Olympics

Proud mother takes a selfie at Princess Leonor’s graduation at the UWC Atlantic College

People have suggested that the close attention she pays to her daughters’ upbringing and education has strengthened Letizia’s position at the palace

Although the posts have since been deleted, a series of rambling tweets remain.

He accused King Felipe of living ‘like a Russian billionaire’ and claimed that the monarch’s upbringing among heel-clicking sycophants had left him out of touch with the real world.

He also called for a new constitution and outlined a series of Quixotic lawsuits – as well as taking aim at Elon Musk over changes to X (he claims his timeline is full of pornography).

Del Burgo is the son of conservative politician Jaime Ignacio del Burgo, the first president of the Spanish province of Navarra.

His grandfather was the historian Jaime del Burgo, who supported General Franco in the Spanish civil war and was a leader of the Carlist movement that advocated for a rival claimant for the Spanish throne.

Del Burgo first made headlines more than a decade ago when he complained about press intrusion when he was married to Letizia’s sister.

More recently he gained notoriety for claiming that the public should rise up and ignore lockdown rules during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whatever the truth of his claims, del Burgo seems unlikely to topple the Spanish monarchy any time soon. 

That fact will, of course, be a further comfort to Queen Letizia on her birthday.

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