A UK judge ruled on Friday that Juan Carlos I, the former king of Spain, cannot be sued for harassment in London courts by his ex-lover.
“The High Court of England and Wales lacks jurisdiction to try this claim,” judge Rowena Collins Rice said in a written judgment on the civil claim brought by Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn.
After their relationship ended in 2012, the Danish entrepreneur Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn accused Juan Carlos of orchestrating a harassment campaign against her.
She claimed that the harassment, which included eavesdropping and break-ins, started after she refused to give back gifts from him that were worth millions of pounds. Juan Carlos refuted the charges.
A spokesperson for the 85-year-old former monarch described Friday’s ruling as “unsurprisingly” confirming his innocence and said it re-established the “conditions necessary for further public appearances”.
Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, who filed the harassment case in 2020, said she was “deeply disappointed” by the decision and that it was “disheartening to see that victims of harassment often struggle to find justice in our legal system”.
