Shocking images taken by the son of a former mistress of Spain‘s King Juan Carlos showing her apparently seducing the royal in order to blackmail him have been revealed for the first time.
Angel Cristo, a photographer, alleges that his mother, actress and TV host Barbara Rey, pestered him to carry out the blackmail plot in 1994 that was covered up by Spain’s security services.
By Cristo’s account Rey invited the King, then still married to his wife Queen Sofia, to her family home on a sunny afternoon, where she cooked him paella, swam with him in her pool and eventually seduced him, 20 years after they had begun a romance together.
Photographs show Rey and now-86-year-old Juan Carlos, who abdicated the throne 10 years ago, kissing and hugging on her terrace, and also show Rey pouring the King wine, before going inside.
He told the Telegraph: ‘I was only 13, but I was good with a camera. My mother said “what a pity you’re too young to help me with this. You couldn’t, though, could you”?’
‘She went on and on until I said ‘yes, I´ll do it’. She manipulated me’, Cristo said, adding that he believed this constituted abuse.
King Juan Carlos and Barbara Rey were seen eating and drinking on Rey’s terrace
She is said to have cooked him paella when she invited him round
They also frolicked in her swimming pool
She used her prior relationship with him to spark an affair
Rey managed to leverage £3million from the Spanish state in exchange for her silence
She kept copies of evidence of the affair, even though she was told she needed to destroy it
Rey took a video using a hidden camera, and tasked her 13-year-old son with taking photos
Angel Cristo also said he was made to take photos his mother having sex with a later boyfriend, which were then sold to Spanish magazines
Cristo said he believed what his mother made him do constituted child abuse
Rey and Carlos were together for just over four years when they were younger
Rey and Carlos would occasionally see each other, even after they both married other people
Carlos told Rey one night about his lacklustre marriage to Queen Sofia
Carlos abdicated the throne in 2014, following a series of financial scandals
The King is believed to have had several affairs with women across Spain
Carlos’ €200,000-a-year allowance was cut off in 2020, following yet another scandal
Rey was paid an initial lump sum in cash that was handed over in a sports bag, before a deal was negotiated to pay her around £250,000 a year for a decade in exchange for her silence
She has never spoken publicly about her affair, though has admitted to a dalliance with ‘a high official of the state’
Cristo was just 13 when he was made to take photographs of his mother
Angel Cristo (pictured) was just 13 when he was made to take photos of his mother having sex with Spain’s then-King
King Juan Carlos, now 86, (pictured) was blackmailed by his former mistress
Actress and TV host Barbara Rey (pictured) allegedly blackmailed the former King
Cristo was hidden in his neighbour’s property with a line of sight to the affair, and captured it on his Canon EOS 700 camera. Rey had also hidden a secret video camera, and filmed the affair.
Cristo said he then edited copies of this clip for his mother.
The photographer said while he knew what he was doing was wrong, he wanted to help his mother’s dire financial situation.
She is alleged to have manipulated Spain’s secret service into giving her around £3million.
The money was paid in a series of installments, with the first being delivered by secret service agents in a sports bag.
The state then agreed to pay her £250,000 a year for a decade.
Though she was meant to destroy all copies of the photos and videos, she kept some hidden away in a safe beneath her father’s armchair in Totana, her hometown, and in a bank deposit box in Luxembourg.
Cristo alleged his mother made him take photographs and videos of the torrid affair
King Juan Carlos’ reign was littered with scandals
Cristo sold some of the images for a ‘modest sum’
Rey was an actress and TV star for most of her life
Angel Cristo (pictured right) claimed to have been made to take photos of the couple having sex
Juan Carlos abdicated the Spanish throne in 2014
The affair cost the Spanish crown around £3million in hush money
Angel then took these and sold some of them to a Dutch magazine for ‘a very modest sum’ last month.
Leaks of a taped phone conversation between Rey and Carlos revealed that the King had confided in her on personal matters, including the state of his marriage to Queen Sofia.
Carlos explained during a phone call in the mid-1990s: ‘We have no family life.
‘Between you and me, and being selfish, it’s very comfortable for me because the Queen performs her job to perfection. And on top of that, she puts up with the situation and doesn’t run off with another man’, he added.
A separate phone call with a friend revealed that Rey was with him for ‘four-and-a-bit years before getting married. And again after separating in 1989.
Rey added: ‘We always had a telephone relationship, and we met on the odd occasion while I was married.’
He abdicated the throne in 2014, after financial scandals and rumours of his infidelity proved too much for him, and he moved to Dubai
Angel said his mother abused him when he was a child by making him take these photographs
Despite this, she has never publicly spoken about her affair with the King, though has said several times she had a dalliance with a ‘high official of the state.’
Her son said that she used her prior relationship with the King to get her life back on track, following a messy divorce with her husband, Angel’s father.
Angel also alleged that his mother tasked him with taking photos of her having sex with Frank Frances, a later boyfriend of his mothers, in order to sell them to Spanish newspapers.
‘It’s strange to watch your mother with a man,’ he said.
Since the affair was revealed, Spain’s media world has admitted that it knew about it, but refused to publish anything in case it offended the royal family.
At the time, Spain had only been a democracy for 20 years, and Juan Carlos was seen as the face of modern Spain, a far cry from the fascist dicatorship of Francisco Franco.
Angel also alleged that his mother tasked him with taking photos of her having sex with Frank Frances, a later boyfriend of his mothers, in order to sell them to Spanish newspapers
Though she was meant to destroy all copies of the photos and videos, she kept some hidden away in various locations
Her son said that she used her prior relationship with the King to get her life back on track, following a messy divorce with her husband
She is alleged to have manipulated Spain’s secret service into giving her around £3million
Lucia Mendez, a journalist from the newspaper El Mundo, told the Telegraph: ‘At that time we were at the peak of self-esteem about the changes made over the previous 20 years, and the representative who embodied our newfound status was the king.
‘There was a consensus among the elites, the politicians and journalists to let the king do what he wanted. But even now it is shocking to hear him discussing matters of state with a woman like Barbara Rey. Any person who behaves like this is clearly a danger to his own system.’
But since then, Juan Carlos has been embroiled in a series of scandals.
He abdicated the throne in 2014, after financial scandals and rumours of his infidelity proved too much for him, and he moved to Dubai.
He was stripped of his €200,000-a-year stipend from the Royal Family after another financial scandal.
Rey, Juan Carlos and Spain’s royal household all declined to comment to the Telegraph.
