Love affairs, intrigues, family misfortunes, political conspiracies and poisoned gifts. The first two chapters of Corinna and the King, released this Monday as a podcast on different platforms, do not lack a detail. As if it were a novel and without providing more evidence than her own words, Corina Larsen acts as a common thread explaining from the beginning of their relationship, which is narrated in the first chapter, until her "surprise" when, according to her version of the story, King Juan Carlos returned from some trips with "bags full of money", an affirmation with which the second chapter closes.
In a telenovela tone, the narrator (actress Laura Gómez, in the Spanish version of the podcast) reads a script that includes, between recording and recording of Corinna, Franco's relationship with the so-called prince of Spain; the tragic death of Alfonsito de Borbón, and until the night of 23-F, an amalgam of themes in which historical facts are mixed, with the intimacies of the sentimental relationship and the sweetened portrait of Corinna herself made by the narrator of the podcast, produced by journalists Bradley Hope and Tom Wright (Project Brazen).
The second chapter, entitled "Living the story", begins by narrating the tragic accident in which, in 1956, the 14-year-old infante Alfonso de Borbón died as a result of the fortuitous firing of a pistol handled by his brother Juan Carlos. This episode is used by Corinna to argue that the king was a traumatized person and, without explaining the cause-effect, she affirms that this is the reason why, wishing to flee from a youth "miserable and with few material goods", she felt an interest excessive for the money. At one point, Corinna affirms that the king enjoyed "like a five-year-old child" when, on returning from some trip, he showed her "bags full of money" that he attributed to gifts from "this or that friend" and that when she asked him explanations he answered: "Don't be dramatic. You don't understand how Spain works".
The chapter is packed with interventions by the historian Paul Preston, the journalist David Jiménez and the writer and historian Laurence Debray who analyze the Franco succession, 23-F and the role of the press in the reign of Juan Carlos I. Corinna also He dares with these issues and affirms that Juan Carlos felt threatened and watched by Franco. The podcast recovers a fragment of the speech of the then Prince of Spain, in 1969, before the Cortes when he accepted Franco's succession as King, recalling that he already showed signs of his interest in political change. "I am very close to youth, I admire them and share their desire to seek a more authentic and better world." The chapter also praises the role of King Juan Carlos on the night of 23-F and his folksy character, recalling the anecdote of the day he climbed on a motorcycle and with his face covered by his helmet helped a motorist who ran out of gas.
In the first chapter, entitled 'La Casita', the beginnings of the relationship are explained, presenting Corinna Larsen as a cosmopolitan, elegant, self-confident woman whom King Juan Carlos met in a hunt where she went as an expert in armory and high society. The protagonist also defines herself as a businesswoman used to dealing with great fortunes and personalities from all over the world and a woman of principles who took her relationship with King Juan Carlos very seriously. She repeats that King Juan Carlos won her over with letters, flowers and appointments in La Casita, the dilapidated pavilion in El Pardo that, over the years, once rehabilitated and redecorated, became her love nest. . Corinna affirms that she was not a lover but that she acted as a faithful wife and was able to make the king live things that she had never done, such as the famous barbecue. “When people define that as an affair and they introduce me to their mistress, it's not that it's pejorative, it just doesn't reflect the depth and breadth of our relationship. I never felt so married before as I felt with the King of Spain. In my heart, he was my husband, ”says Corinna in the umpteenth version of time, which she numbers between 2004 and 2009, when she was with King Juan Carlos. From 2009 to 2012, when the incident in Botswana took place in which the relationship was broken forever, according to Corinna, they were just friends: "I did not want to be part of a structure similar to a harem, something in which I was not interested or from far".
In that chapter, Corinna Larsen, whom the narration calls Princess Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein at all times, also attributes herself to the organization and success of Felipe and Letizia's honeymoon, which she prepared on behalf of King Juan Carlos and that, according to her, was paid between the Zarzuela and the Navilot company, owned by Catalan businessman Josep Cusí.
The broadcast of the first two chapters of the podcast, which can be related to an image and public relations campaign promoted by Corinna, through a consultancy called Tancredi, takes place two days before the lawyers of King Juan Carlos present before the Court of Appeals in London an appeal to allege that King Juan Carlos cannot be the subject of a lawsuit in the British courts given his status as former head of state and member of the Spanish royal family. The appeal is filed this Wednesday after, last March, the judge handling the case of the harassment lawsuit filed by Corinna Larsen rejected the arguments of the defense of King Juan Carlos. It is a civil process in which, if it goes ahead, what is settled is a possible compensation as financial compensation for the personal and professional damages that Corinna has alleged.
