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Juan Carlos I’s memoir paints a different picture to an official statement released at the time
Joseph Wilson,Suman NaishadhamWednesday 03 December 2025 18:38 GMT
CloseRelated: King Juan Carlos abdicates
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Seventy years on from accidentally shooting and killing his brother, Spain’s former King Juan Carlos I has spoken about the incident for the first time.
Juan Carlos shot his younger brother Alfonso in the forehead in March 1956. The brothers were just 18 and 14, respectively, at the time of the incident, which occurred while the royal family was exiled in Portugal.
The incident is well-known in Spain, but the former king has never recounted it firsthand.
An official statement issued by the Spanish Embassy in Portugal at the time said: “ Whilst His Highness the Infante Alfonso was cleaning a revolver last evening with his brother, a shot was fired hitting his forehead and killing him in a few minutes.”
However, Juan Carlos’ account of the incident, published on Wednesday in his memoir, titled Reconciliation, paints a different picture.
The now-87-year-old wrote that he and his brother were “having fun playing with a .22 calibre pistol” and did not realise that there was a bullet in the chamber.
open image in galleryFormer king of Spain Juan Carlos (PA Archive)“A shot went off, the bullet ricocheted and struck my brother in the forehead. He died in my father’s arms,” Juan Carlos wrote.
“Even today, it’s difficult for me to talk about what happened, but I think about it every day.”
Juan Carlos became king in 1975 and was, for decades, deemed a national saviour after he oversaw Spain’s return to democracy and stood down a military coup.
However, public opinion soured on the monarch due to his womanising, links to Saudi money, and safari trips to shoot African elephants during a worldwide recession.
He abdicated in favour of his son, King Felipe VI, in 2014 and later left Spain for self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates.
open image in galleryJuan Carlos’s newly released memoir, Reconciliation (AP)The disgraced former monarch wrote on the first page of his memoir that he wanted to set the record straight after years of “misinterpretations and false truths about my life”.
However, the book seems to have driven him and Felipe further apart.
Promoting the book earlier this week, Juan Carlos addressed Spaniards in a video quickly splashed across Spanish media, appealing to people: “I ask you to support my son, King Felipe, in the difficult job that is unifying Spain.”
The royal house, which rarely airs Felipe's views, reacted swiftly.
“We don’t understand the purpose of that video, and we don’t see it as necessary or appropriate,” Rosa Lerchundi, communications director for the royal house, said.
open image in galleryKing Felipe with his family: Queen Letizia, Crown Princess Leonor and Princess Sofia (Getty)Felipe has for years distanced himself from Juan Carlos. When his father's financial dealings came under scrutiny, Felipe renounced any future personal inheritance he could receive from Juan Carlos and stripped his father of his annual stipend.
Investigations into Juan Carlos' finances in Spain and Switzerland were eventually dropped, as was a harassment case against a former lover taken to court in Britain, but the damage to his public image was done.
The Spanish Royal House under Felipe makes every effort to appear to be a service to the country while avoiding lavish spending. Its yearly budget is less than a tenth of what the British royal house receives in public funding.
In the book, Juan Carlos said he understands Felipe’s need to protect the monarchy, but laments their estrangement.
“I understand that, as King, he must keep a certain distance from me," Juan Carlos wrote. "But I have suffered as a father. In those difficult moments, I felt the need for affection and family support.”