Long before Corinna Larsen appeared in our lives and complicated the existence of the then King Juan Carlos I, there was a woman, the Mallorcan Marta Gayá (76 years old), who occupied the heart of the monarch. With her, Juan Carlos came to confess that “he had never been so happy”, so he never gave up his love and, over the years, his endearing friendship.
Separated from a Malaga engineer
Marta Gayá, born in 1948 in Palma de Mallorca, is the daughter of a Mallorcan hotel businessman, Fernando Gayá, and has a sister, María Victoria, whom they call Chiqui, to whom she is very close. María Victoria married the urologist Mariano Rosselló and their son, Mariano Rosselló Gayá, has followed in his father’s footsteps in the field of medicine. Marta Gayá married the Málaga engineer Juan Mena, who worked for her father, at a very young age, but their marriage barely lasted four years and she never remarried. Marta Gayá has always belonged to Majorcan high society and has no financial problems, since the inheritance her father left her has allowed her to live comfortably between Switzerland and Palma de Mallorca.
His friendship with King Juan Carlos dates back more than 40 years. In the early 80s, one of Juan Carlos’s best friends, Prince Zourab Tchokotua, a friend of Marta Gayá, approached her at the Club de Mar in Palma and said: “A friend of mine wants to meet you.” . Tchokotua, who was never a prince, but did belong to Georgian high society, had met Juan Carlos during their stay in Switzerland and they established a friendship that lasted until the late 1980s. Tchokotua married a Mallorcan woman, Marieta Salas, daughter of the businessman Pedro Salas, and was one of the people closest to Juan Carlos in that Mallorcan court that surrounded the monarch during his summers in Marivent. Tchokotua died in 2019, at the age of 82, due to leukemia.
The complicit silence of the press
In those Mallorcan summers of the royal family, and apart from the official photos that they offered to the press every year – the posed in Marivent, the regattas in the bay of Palma, the reception of the island’s authorities or the office with the president of the current government –, King Juan Carlos lived an unsuspected freedom, thanks to the complicit silence of the press. In the 80s, the monarch’s friendship with Marta Gayá was popular, both in Majorcan high society, in the world of sailing and in the editorial offices of the local media. But it was not until 1992 that the name of the Mallorcan woman hit the media, first in the French press and then in Época magazine under the title ‘The Lady of Rumor’.
Their first meetings took place in Mallorca, at José Luis de Vilallonga’s house, but they also met in a fabulous penthouse that Marta Gayá acquired in Madrid, or in Switzerland, the country where Marta currently lives. Discretion was always Marta’s great valuea quality that, precisely, Juan Carlos himself did not have. At a dinner at the Palma Nautical Club, Marta Gayá made her entrance accompanied by her parents. King Juan Carlos stood up and said to the diners who accompanied him, including Queen Sofia: “I’m going to say hello to my in-laws”. It was one more humiliation, one of many, that the Queen had to suffer in her marriage.
Marta Gayá has always been characterized by her discretion.
“Careful, Your Majesty”
Of course, the freedom that King Juan Carlos enjoyed in Mallorca ended up taking its toll on him. Years before the famous ‘I’m so sorry. I have been wrong. It will not happen again’, spoken by Juan Carlos after the incident in Botswana, the then secretary of the royal household, General Sabino Fernández Campo, had already warned him that his adventures, sooner or later, would come to light. “Be careful, Your Majesty,” he used to advise him, but Juan Carlos didn’t pay any attention.
Juan Carlos, in his Mallorcan summers.
“The King is not there”
In June 1992, when the monarch was to have signed the replacement of Minister Fernández Ordóñez – who was ill and died a few months later – Juan Carlos was not in Spain. Felipe González, who was the president of the Government, had to come forward saying: “The King is not here”. How was it possible for the King to be absent from his duties as head of state, just like that? Later, it was learned that Juan Carlos was in Switzerland. First it was said that she was in a clinic undergoing treatment, then it was learned that she was “with a friend” so that, finally, it was known that that friend was Marta Gayá.
Since they met, Marta Gaya became the most dear friend (much more than Corinna), the most discreet (much more than Corinna) and the most loyal (much more than Corinna) of Juan Carlos. It is said that Marta Gayá has been one of Juan Carlos’s most frequent visitors in his exile in Abu Dhabi, because although their love story ended when the German princess burst into the monarch’s life, the remains of a friendship forged during more than forty years.
“She is a great host”
The Balearic journalist Esteban Mercer has said about her: “Sailing is one of the lady’s main hobbies, which is why she always looks perfectly tanned. She exercises daily and takes careful care of her diet. He barely tastes alcohol, although he does have personalized bottles of Rioja wine with his initials painted in gold on the label he serves to his guests. She is a great hostess who takes care of all the details and goes out of her way to make her guests feel at home. During the day it is common to see her in a bathing suit, cover herself with a caftan for lunch and put her hair in a ponytail. For dinner or party nights with friends, it always stands out for its elegance, He likes fashion, he loves colorful accessories. and she puts on just enough makeup. “He usually retires to sleep at twelve o’clock: he strictly adheres to the schedules he sets for himself.”
Without a doubt, a very accurate portrait of the woman who has known how to carry out her love story with absolute elegance and discretion. No one will be able to say about her that she has taken advantage of her friendship with the monarch – she never asked him for anything – nor that she has caused a scandal. Marta Gayá never wanted to be the focus of attention and that has always been her attitude.