Spain‘s former king has claimed that Princess Diana was ‘cold’ and ‘distant, except in the presence of paparazzi’ in a shocking new memoir.

Juan Carlos, the disgraced former monarch who is alleged to have had innumerable extramarital affairs, also denied ever having an affair with her in ‘Reconciliation’, a book set to be published next week.

Carlos claimed Diana was ‘cold, taciturn, distant, except in the presence of the paparazzi’.

Speculation over Diana’s relationship with Carlos has simmered since the 1980s, after she, Prince Charles, William, and Harry stayed at the Marivent Palace, the Spanish royal family’s summer home in Palma de Mallorca, on four separate occasions.

But Diana was said to have been repulsed by the former king. Andrew Morton, her biographer, said she described him as a ‘very libidinous man’.

According to Morton’s book, Ladies of Spain, she told her friends following a visit to Mallorca: ‘I felt uncomfortable being left alone with him in a room, although I can assure you that nothing happened.’

Carlos is said to have been such a womaniser that Spain’s secret service was forced to inject him with female hormones to reduce his sex drive, as it was a ‘problem for the state’.

José Manuel Villarejo, a former police commissioner, made the allegation during a parliamentary hearing in 2024.

Princes Diana (pictured, left) curtseys to King Juan Carlos of Spain, who kisses her hand, as she and Prince Charles (left) leave Toledo after an official visit to Spain, April 25 1987

Former King Juan Carlos I of Spain (L) and his wife former Queen Sofia leave after attending the traditional Easter Sunday Mass of Resurrection in Palma de Mallorca on April 1, 2018

He claimed the country’s National Intelligence Centre injected Carlos with ‘female hormones and testosterone inhibitors to lower his libido because it was understood that it was a problem for the state that he was such an ardently passionate person’.

His alleged relationship with businesswoman and socialite Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein is one of the many reasons he abdicated the throne in 2014.

Diana herself is alleged to have had several affairs throughout her life.

According to a friend of hers who spoke to Sally Bedell Smith, author of ‘Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess’: ‘She used to collect men in the old-fashioned romantic way.

‘She would give you a look with lowered eyes… You knew deep down it was a game she played, and a very clever one in a way, not cynical, but by doing this, she won everybody over.’

Her first alleged affair is said to have taken place in 1985, when she fell for her bodyguard Barry Mannakee.

Tina Brown, who authored ‘The Diana Chronicles’, said: ‘For a woman in a golden cage, bodyguards are an obvious candidate for romantic fixation.

‘A bodyguard may be the only real man a princess meets. His strong shoulders clear the path ahead in the crowd.

Juan Carlos settles into the Eduardo Anitua Clinic in Vitoria, Spain on October 29 2025

Spain’s former king Juan Carlos has claimed that Princess Diana was ‘cold’ and ‘distant, except in the presence of paparazzi’

Princess Diana was said to have been repulsed by the former king

‘His firm hand on her elbow guides his principal to the refuge of a waiting car.’

Diana herself reportedly said in a taped conversation, seemingly about Mannakee: ‘I was only happy when he was around.

‘I was like a little girl in front of him the whole time, desperate for praise. Desperate’.