In early August, Spain's former King Juan Carlos left the country following allegations of financial wrongdoing. But the country's affection for its monarch began to unravel as far back as 2012, following an ill-fated elephant hunt. With the king on that safari was his former lover Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. She talks exclusively to the BBC about a multi-million euro gift from Juan Carlos, her claims of
harassment by Spain's secret service - and that elephant. Except Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein does not really want to talk about the elephant - the one King Juan Carlos shot dead on 11 April 2012. The media reported the animal was 50 years old and weighed five tonnes, with tusks more than a metre long. Not that she is able to verify the creature's vital statistics when asked about the incident. "I have no idea," says the Danish-born business consultant, who was
brought up in Germany. Yes, she was on the safari with the king, but she says she was at a distance when the shooting took place. "I saw it afterwards because everybody goes to see it," she says. "But I walked away after two minutes. I'm a hunter, but I've never killed an elephant in my life and never would. For me, the whole hunting experience was traumatic in that sense." The safari in Botswana was a present from the king to her son on his 10th birthday. Juan Carlos had become close to zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's children during his romantic relationship with her from 2004 to 2009 - a relationship which the Spanish public knew nothing about at the time. Since 1962 he has been married to Queen Sofia. Image
copyrightCORINNA ZU SAYN-WITTGENSTEIN "I wasn't keen on going on this trip," zu Sayn-Wittgenstein says. "I felt that King Juan Carlos was trying to get me to come back to him, and I didn't want to give a false impression. I almost had premonitions about this trip." With good reason, as it would turn out. Before dawn on 13 April 2012, the king fell in his luxury safari tent, fracturing his hip. On his return to Madrid, the media fell on the safari story like a voracious lion on a fragile gazelle. The revelation of the elephant hunt came very soon after a corruption investigation began into the king's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin - he is still in prison. This was a time of real hardship in Spain, with
unemployment running at 23%. After undergoing an operation, King Juan Carlos made his first tentative public appearance in hospital using a walking stick. He was asked how he was. Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES Image caption King Juan Carlos apologises for the hunting trip after his discharge from hospital "I'm sorry," he said. "I made a mistake, and it won't happen again." King Juan Carlos had been largely
untouchable because of his place in Spain's tortured, bloody history. As head of state after Francisco Franco's death in 1975, the king had overseen Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy and faced down a coup attempt in 1981. Now the damage to the popular monarch was immense. Listen to Spain: The elephant in the palace on Crossing Continents, on BBC Radio 4 at 11:00 on Thursday 20 August Or catch up later online "The crisis blew up because the Botswana trip put several things on the table," says Jose Antonio Zarzalejos, a former editor of Spain's right-wing, monarchy-supporting newspaper ABC. "Firstly, that the king was openly unfaithful to Queen Sofia. Secondly, that in the midst of an economic crisis, Juan Carlos visited a country where Spain had no diplomatic representation. So the king - as head of state -
was off the radar of the Spanish government. And thirdly, this was a very expensive trip - we didn't know who paid for it. It created a lousy image of the king." King Juan Carlos and zu Sayn Wittgenstein met at a shooting party in February 2004. She says the king was having trouble with his shotgun. "And I'm quite knowledgeable about all that, so I could explain what was wrong," she says. "I think he was quite surprised." The relationship moved slowly. Ima
nice...