Son of King Juan Carlos’s former mistress ‘makes astonishing claim that she made him watch the couple have sex when he was 13 so he could secretly photograph them in blackmail plot’

A Spanish man has claimed that his mother made him watch and photograph her having sex with Spain‘s King Juan Carlos to leverage millions of pounds from the country’s royal family when he was just 13, according to reports. 

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, seen by MailOnline, 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, now 86, (pictured) was blackmailed by his former mistress

Actress and TV host Barbara Rey (pictured) allegedly blackmailed the former King

Cristo alleged his mother made him take photographs and videos of the torrid affair

King Juan Carlos’ reign was littered with scandals

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.

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.