Former King Describes Princess Diana as ‘Cold, Taciturn, Distant’ Following Past Affair Rumors

Juan Carlos I, who reigned as the King of Spain from 1975 until his abdication in June 2014, is opening up about his relationship with the late Princess Diana.

The former monarch — who is said to have had many extramarital affairs in his prime — has denied having a sexual relationship with the Princess of Wales, according to an excerpt from his upcoming memoir Reconciliation that was published Wednesday, October 29, in The Telegraph.

In his book, Juan Carlos, now 87, also describes the beloved royal as “cold, taciturn, distant, except in the presence of the paparazzi.”

Rumors of a relationship between Juan Carlos and Diana began after she and King Charles III took sons Prince William and Prince Harry to Marivent Palace, the Spanish royal family’s summer home in Palma de Mallorca, on four summer visits in the late 1980s and 1990.

Around the same time, Charles, now 76, was having an affair with Queen Camilla, whom he later married in April 2005 following his divorce from Diana in 1996 and her sudden death the following year.

Though Diana never publicly addressed the rumors about her and Juan Carlos, The Telegraph reports that her biographer Andrew Morton said she called him “a very libidinous man,” adding: “I felt uncomfortable being left alone with him in a room, although I can assure you that nothing happened.”

Diana tragically died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 while her driver was fleeing the paparazzi. She was 36. Her ex-husband Charles became king of the United Kingdom upon his mother Queen Elizabeth II‘s death in 2022.

Juan Carlos abdicated the throne in 2014 after being involved in multiple scandals. His memoir, titled Reconciliation, is slated to be published in France next week.