For months now, the Spanish financial investor James del Burgo It is the biggest nightmare that the Royal House and the Spanish monarchists could be experiencing.
Del Burgo met Letizia Ortiz long before she became queen of Spain. They were friends and, according to him, more than friends. Before and after Letizia became engaged to the then Prince Felipe de Borbón, today Felipe VI, whom she married in 2004.
Letizia and Jaime were also siblings-in-law: Del Burgo was married to one of her sisters.
Anecdotes and phrases that seriously compromised the queen circulated on her social networks, and that Letizia had written or said to her when she was already part of the Spanish monarchy.
Even a photo of her, pregnant with her first daughter, wrapped in a pashmina that would have belonged to Jaime and these words: “Love. I’m wearing your pashmina. It’s like feeling you next to me. He takes care of me. Protects me. I count the hours until we see each other again. Loving You. Out of here. Yours”.
Del Burgo, who has been outside Spain for more than thirty years, is preparing a book and a series with everything he knows about the Spanish royal family.
From London, where he lives, he gave this exclusive interview to Clarion.
-The book will be a documentary series. Where are you at?
-Before Christmas I will publish The boxwood labyrinth, is a novel where fiction is below reality. You understand me. And then Lobos, the autobiographical book where reality surpasses fiction. Lobos is already in the film pre-production phase. And it can be read and seen next year.
-What is the intention of your complaints?
-That of making Spaniards aware of the reality of the monarchical institution and its relations with power. It is due to the long relationship that I had with Letizia, before and after Felipe, that I had access and knowledge. The Spanish have been deceived, they are deceived every day. It is time to reveal the reality of what is hidden at the top of the pyramid of our society and propose solutions.
-I believe that one should not limit oneself to conveying a problem if one is not capable of providing the solution. Fail this, fail that. Okay, very good, but now, how to fix it. To be constructive. I will explain the problem and give the solution. But perhaps society will not put it into practice. Spain is a sultanate. We have a diminished, deficient, poor, unreal, apparent and fictitious democracy. The Spanish are masochistic, adolescent, weak. And they like to be sodomized. Machado said that out of every ten, nine attack. And it is like that.
-I left Spain thirty years ago. That’s easy to say. And it seems like it was yesterday. It’s now because the level of moral corruption of those who hold the Crown and their immediate predecessors exceeds what is tolerable. They have crossed all the lines.
-In some of your messages on X you distinguish between Corona and Bourbons.
-Clear. Because the Crown was already there, centuries, before the Bourbons of France invaded Spain. They took over a Crown that did not belong to them. Alfonso XIII fled Spain, therefore, he abandoned the Crown. Franco arrived and after forty years he named his successor, not Juan, Alfonso’s son, but Juan Carlos, the grandson. The current Bourbon dynasty was created by a dictator. He could have chosen Micky Mouse, he chose Juan Carlos, unfortunately for us. And from there, Felipe. It’s that easy.
-But in 1978 the Spanish voted for the Constitution.
-And that was the trap. The Bourbons armored themselves to reign for another three hundred years. The Spanish were given the Constitution as a whole to vote on. It was: Bourbons forever and democracy, or nothing.
-But the king doesn’t rule, right?
-That’s what they have managed to make the herd believe. The King of Spain has extraordinary power. He is head of state. He is head of the Armed Forces. He is inviolable. The inviolability of the King is a legal aberration that has no precedents. He deals with the head of the CNI, with business leaders, with anyone who means anything and passes through his domains. He knows everything about everyone. He is above good and evil. Hence the outrages. If any politician ends up becoming corrupt in a few years, imagine a family that has three hundred! People cannot imagine, in practice they are the absolute power.
-What should Queen Letizia fear?
-Nothing but the truth that she knows. Don’t think that I have anything against Letizia. It’s not like that. We have shared many years of our lives together. We have been a family. As I have always said, ours was not a relationship between lovers. The lover would be him, in any case. I mean Felipe. Ours was a committed, long-lasting, exclusive relationship. We planned our future together and wanted to form a family. We shared dreams, including that of growing old holding hands. There was coexistence. If I don’t tell you about this relationship, what I am going to reveal about the rottenness of the Crown and the powers that surround it would not be understood. I saw and heard it from Letizia, and with Letizia. She asked me to flee. And we tried.
-Because I did not work?
-Because in that madhouse some are hostages of others.
-When was the last time you talked to her?
-How do you feel about Letizia?
-The affection that one has for an old love, for a person who has meant so many things. I called her “my little redhead.” In Spain, I imagine in other countries, we call communists “reds.”
-El Nacional published these days: “Casa Real has offered Jaime del Burgo Letizia’s head in exchange for Leonor’s.” Is that so? What does it mean?
-Don’t read that garbage media. It doesn’t tell the truth.
-This week marks ten years since Felipe was king. Do you have evidence that could bring down his reign?
-In a country, let’s say, normal. And I understand by such, one cultured, educated, without shields, with equal opportunities, and many etcetera, after Lobos, the Crown would be formulated with new criteria and the Bourbons would be distanced from it once and for all, instead of continuing suffering them. The Constitution would be changed in five key points to turn Spain into a real democracy that would allow it to flourish and progress at a dizzying pace. I am very interested in seeing how Spanish society will respond to the sight of Lobos. Whatever dignity we have left we will see in the next two years. Then I will return and this self-exile will end. Or I’ll never set foot again.
-On your social media you severely criticise the head of the government, Pedro Sánchez. What evidence is there against him?
-Pedro Sánchez has 7.7 million votes. It is a captive vote that comes mainly from civil servants and their families. Spain is the country with the highest number of civil servants per active citizen in the West. Sánchez is a convinced red, a shameless man who wants to be in power for life, instead of a maximum of four years, which is what anyone should be. To form a government he needed the help of the former ETA, using the blood of a thousand innocents. And Felipe allowed this. When you shake hands with those who have blood stains on them, you become contaminated. You are part of a chain.
-You would never shake his hand…
-It would contaminate me. A few weeks ago I told Letizia. I’m sorry I can’t shake your hand again. I would have to do it with gloves. That’s what I told him.
-Have you received threats?
-Yeah. Throughout my life of the terrorist group ETA. And today from extremists, I suppose, who defend the Bourbons tooth and nail. The last one is from two days ago and I brought it to the attention of the UK police. There are sick people. They think that Felipe embodies the country. And that anything goes in his defense.
-I took a course with ETA. They were the demons of my childhood. My father was an enemy to beat. We suffered a lot and we were lucky to survive. With ETA I learned to live each day of my life as if it were the last. And this makes you have a vision of existence, let’s say, different. We are all going to die. It’s a matter of time. Fear is paralyzing. We have to have courage to overcome it and do what we believe is our obligation. In 2004, or thereabouts, ETA imposed the revolutionary tax on me. Many businessmen paid. I called Carlos Herrera and in a radio interview I tore up the letter and sent them to hell. From that day on I had to carry a revolver and have a private escort for many years. Evil must be exposed and defeated.
Felipe and Letizia greet after their wedding, in May 2022. Photo: AFP-How long do you think Letizia and King Felipe’s marriage will last? Do you think there will be a divorce?
-You cannot end what has not existed. I know it’s a bit of a cryptic answer. But I’ll explain it when it’s time. Reality surpasses the meaning of the words in the dictionary.
-Do you have the feeling of being watched?
-I have been “watched” since 2012. I know that my conversations are recorded, my emails are read, my devices are tapped. They searched a mansion where he lived on the outskirts of Geneva, one Sunday, from top to bottom. The intelligence services, when they feel that you are a danger to the institutions, act on their own initiative. They think they are patriots. And they are scum.
-Is it true that you have been offered money to keep quiet? If so, why did you not accept the offer?
-On the contrary. They have offered me money to speak. Many times. And I have always refused. People are obsessed with money and think that everyone has a price. At my age, I’m 54 years old, and thirty more years old in my head, I stop caring about fame, recognition, money, critics. I earned my living when I was very young and thanks to working tirelessly and effort I have managed to make my business dreams come true. I don’t depend on anything or anyone.
-Letizia has a damaged image.
-Yeah. That’s what she tells me. But she insists on doing it. No need to lend a hand. For many years, I helped her precisely avoid it, like a counselor. Sometimes I managed to free her from herself. Many times not. Since last December 6, she is more restrained. They all are.
– What kind of evidence do you have stored in a safe place? Videos, photos, letters, emails…?
-What do you think of Juan Carlos?
-He is a perverse being. The King of Spain lives like a Russian billionaire, like a provost of a tyrannical regime. At the expense of the pockets of the Spanish people. The same goes for the Prime Minister. In Spain, institutions display an obscene ostentation because most people are mileuristas. But the masses allow it. If you are educated from childhood: first it is God, then the Holy Father, then you and finally everyone else… You don’t come out normal. You can’t empathize with the real problems of real people. I am inviolable. The guards click their heels and stand at attention when they see me. People receive me as if I were a star. They think they know me. They treat me as Majesty. They all bow their heads when they see me. They kiss my hands. They bow. I am part of their lives. If you grow up like that, as we would say in Spain, you come out an idiot. That is why the Bourbons, who were eventually expelled from everywhere except my country, have turned out as they were and have done their misdeeds. They cannot be fixed.
-How was your relationship with King Felipe? Have you had direct contact with him? Even a friendship?
-Yeah. We were great friends for many years. Intimate friends. And I always told him what I thought. It will not continue in 2027. Despite the idiosyncrasies of the Spanish. There will be change.
-Is there anything else you would like to add?
-Yeah. Express my love for Argentina for a personal matter. I hope they do well, as a country. Oh, and I would like to have Benicio del Toro for Lobos. He is able to embody evil in his characters like few actors.
