Photographer reveals his part in plot to blackmail Spain's former King by secretly filming his illicit affair

A? man has revealed his part in a plot to blackmail the former King of Spain for millions of dollars by filming the monarch's illicit affair with his mother.

Angel Cristo was just 13 years-old when his mother, B¨¢rbara Rey, asked him to secretly record her having sex with Juan Carlos in 1994.

The footage would then be used by Rey to extort the Spanish royal family for decades.

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Rey had invited the King to her home to rekindle their romance that had begun nearly 20 years earlier.

The actress and TV host persuaded her son to record the tryst on a secret video camera.

Cristo has spoken about his involvement with The Telegraph UK, which has published some of the images, saying he knew what he was being asked to do was wrong but was convinced to help his mother to help resolve her financial problems.

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"She went on and on until I said, 'Yes, I'll do it'. She manipulated me," Cristo said.

At the time, the compromising images were used by Rey as leverage for millions of dollars in hush money.?

Rey was paid around $6 million by the Spanish secret service, who bought the photos and footage to spare the royal family from embarrassment.

?The incident has also made headlines again, 30 years later, after Cristo sold some of the photos to the Dutch magazine Priv¨¦.

Spain's former King Juan Carlos, now 86, has been linked to a string of women while married to Queen Sofia.

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He was widely popular ?for most of his almost 40-year reign, ruling Spain from 1975 until he abdicated the throne in 2014 for his son, now King Felipe VI.

But soon before his abdication, Juan Carlos became embroiled in a number of financial scandals.

The former monarch fled Spain for the UAE in 2020 after he was linked to an inquiry into alleged corruption.??

But three investigations were dropped in March, 2022.

Tapes of Juan Carlos' phone conversations with his mistress were recently published by the online news site OK Diario.

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In the recordings, Juan Carlos described his marriage to Queen Sof¨ªa as loveless after the birth of their third child, the now King Felipe, in 1968.

"We have no family life," Juan Carlos tells Rey, in the conversation from the mid-1990s.

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He went on to explain that he and the Queen lived in separate apartments in Madrid's Zarzuela Palace.

"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," Juan Carlos said.