“Corinna and the King” Podcast from Project Brazen and PRX to Chronicle the True Story That Shook the Spanish Royal Family to Its Core
The 8-part podcast series debuts in English and Spanish across all major platforms on Monday, November 7. Corinna zu-Sayn Wittengenstein shares first-hand account of her experience with King Juan Carlos I of Spain amidst a corruption scandal that stretched to countries around the world, before his abdication of the throne in 2014. The podcast will be released simultaneously in English with narration by actress Mishel Prada and in Spanish featuring actress Laura Gómez.
Innovative content studio Project Brazen and award-winning public media organization PRX today announced a new investigative narrative podcast, “Corinna and the King”. The eight-part series will debut on Monday, November 7.
In “Corinna and the King,” Corinna zu-Sayn Wittengenstein shares a powerful first-hand account of the abdication that shook the Spanish throne in 2014 during the reign of King Juan Carlos I as well as the corruption investigation and public scandal that continues to unfold today. Executive produced by Project Brazen Co-Founders, bestselling authors, and Pulitzer finalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, new episodes will be released weekly on Mondays.
“Corinna and the King” tells the story of Corinna, a well-connected Danish-German businesswoman, and Juan Carlos I, the Spanish King. Their romantic relationship stretched across continents in secret, but its unraveling would open a window into a dangerous world of greed, corruption, violence, vast pools of hidden wealth, international espionage, conspiracy, hedonism, and elephant hunting, all tracing back to one of the most secretive royalties in the world. The series will go behind the curtain into the rarefied world of royals and the ultra-wealthy. Corinna’s story is contextualized with dozens of interviews, including long-time royal correspondents and biographers, expert historians, Spanish intelligence chiefs, former FBI agents, and an undercover police commissioner.
“We created Project Brazen to go after the biggest stories in the world, telling them without fear or favor,” Hope said. “This podcast, our most ambitious effort to date, embodies that mission. The shocking story of ‘Corinna and the King’ is as thrilling as it is consequential.”
In the first two episodes, “La Casita” and “A People’s King,” listeners learn of the beginning of the relationship between the King and Corinna, which began discreetly. Despite being raised in a life of privilege, nothing prepares Corinna for the wealth she encounters after meeting the King. Making his intentions clear, Juan Carlos sends daily letters and bouquets, but as their relationship intensifies, Corinna learns more about the royal house than she ever expected, including Juan Carlos’s troubled past, the tragic death of his younger brother, and his upbringing under the thumb of a murderous dictator — not to mention his talent for hiding his exorbitant wealth.
“Corinna and the King” narrator Mishel Prada is best known for portraying the lead role of Emma Hernandez on the Starz drama series “Vida.” She previously starred in “The Walking Dead” spinoff series, “Fear the Walking Dead: Passage,” as well as in “Riverdale”. The Spanish-language version narrated by Laura Gomez (Blanca Flores in “Orange is the New Black”) will also be released simultaneously. The two will be available via their own podcast feeds.
Both versions of the podcast will be free to listeners everywhere across all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Amazon Music.
The podcasts were created in partnership with podcast productions companies Audiation Inc. in New York and La Coctelera Music in Spain.
About Project Brazen
With an exciting slate of podcasts, books, documentaries, TV shows and films in development, Project Brazen is co-founded by bestselling authors and Pulitzer finalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope. Based in London and Singapore, Project Brazen finances, produces and markets its own projects, working with production partners and journalists around the world. The company is represented by a team at United Talent Agency in Los Angeles and Levy Law in New York City. Project Brazen, together with SK Global, recently announced a deal with Crazy Rich Asians co-writer Peter Chiarelli to write a television adaptation chronicling the decades-long Fat Leonard U.S. Navy scandal, based on Project Brazen’s popular podcast “Fat Leonard,” which recently garnered a SOPA 2022 Award for Excellence in Audio Reporting. Other recent Project Brazen Original podcasts include “Kabul Falling” and “Resistance: Stories from Ukraine.”
Wright and Hope were longtime collaborators at the Wall Street Journal where they wrote groundbreaking front-page stories on some of the biggest events of the day and uncovered global crime. They led the newspaper’s team that broke open the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB) scandal, a $6 billion fraud which brought down a government and forced Goldman Sachs to pay the largest ever penalty under U.S. bribery laws. Together they co-wrote the #1 international bestseller Billion Dollar Whale (2018) about the Malaysian playboy Jho Low at the center of the fraud, who ensnared banks, Hollywood celebrities and politicians in his schemes.
About PRX
PRX is a non-profit public media company specializing in audio journalism and storytelling. PRX serves independent producers and organizations by helping them connect to their most engaged, supportive audiences. One of the world’s leading podcast publishers, PRX works in partnership with TED, PBS, the Smithsonian, Futuro Media, GBH, Religion of Sports, and more. PRX is also home to Radiotopia, known as one of the most creative and successful podcast networks. In addition, PRX distributes trusted public radio programming to hundreds of stations nationwide, including “The World,” “The Moth Radio Hour,” “This American Life,” “Snap Judgment,” “Reveal,” “The Takeaway,” and “Latino USA.” PRX programs have been recognized by the Peabody Awards, the duPont-Columbia Awards, the IDA Documentary Awards, and the Pulitzer Prizes. In 2022, Futuro Media and PRX won a Pulitzer Prize.
