Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn (née Larsen; born 28 January 1964) is a Danish-German entrepreneur.

Early life

Corinna Larsen was born on 28 January 1964 in Frankfurt, West Germany Her father, born in 1920 in Ballerup, Denmark, was the European director of Varig, the national airline of Brazil, from 1961 until 1991. The King of Spain subsequently hired her to arrange the honeymoon of his son Felipe, Prince of Asturias and his new bride Princess Letizia.

Apollonia Associates In 2006, zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn founded a consulting firm called Apollonia Associates that advises businesses and governments. She relocated to Monaco where she became an advisor to Princess Charlene. She is one of the people named in the Paradise Papers disclosure published in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn told investigators that the money was a donation from the former Spanish monarch, whom Swiss prosecutors name as the first beneficiary of the Mirabaud bank account.

In August 2020, zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn was part of an investigation regarding a Saudi rail deal during the late-2010s, and a series of financial transactions involving Juan Carlos I of Spain.

For many years zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn used several offshore companies to move the money around that she received from different sources in order to keep private the purchase of mansions and houses based in places thousands of miles from her residence. The creation of this complicated web of companies or trusts was to hide the name of the real owner of certain properties and accounts with money.

Personal life

In 1989, the then-Corinna Larsen met Philip Adkins, an American businessman based in the UK. They divorced in 2005, but she retained her married name.

Relationship with Juan Carlos I It is alleged that zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn became the mistress of Spanish King Juan Carlos I in 2004. The King fell, breaking his hip and requiring emergency surgery, which brought increased media attention and led to the exposure of their relationship. In 2020, zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, resident in the United Kingdom, filed a harassment case in London, claiming that Juan Carlos had sought the return of funds following their break-up in 2012. In 2022, Juan Carlos won an appeal on the grounds that he was king at the time of the 2012–2014 events and consequently immune from prosecution. In 2023, the High Court of England and Wales threw out the case on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction in the matter, making no judgement as to the substance of the allegations.