Spain’s exiled king, Juan Carlos I, who now lives in Dubai, said that he killed his younger brother Alfonso when they were teenagers, a tragedy from which he will ‘never recover’
Spain’s exiled king has revealed for the first time how he shot and killed his younger brother when they were teenagers. Juan Carlos I, 87, called it a tragedy from which he will ‘never recover’.
The former royal, who now lives in Dubai, wrote about the death of Alfonso, nearly 70 years ago, in his 500-page memoir published this week. He said: “I didn’t like to talk about it, and this is the first time I do.
“I will not recover from this tragedy. Its gravity will accompany me forever.”
The brothers were “playing” with a pistol as teenagers at their family’s home in Portugal in 1956, according to the autobiography, entitled ‘Juan Carlos I d’Espagne: Réconciliation’.
He said: “We had taken out the magazine. We had no idea there was a bullet left in the chamber.”
He added: “A shot was fired into the air. The bullet ricocheted and struck my brother squarely in the forehead. He died in our father’s arms.”
There was no judicial inquiry into the accident. Juan Carlos, then aged 18, and Alfonso, aged 14, had been apparently playing with a Star Bonifacio Echeverria automatic pistol, owned by the younger brother. As the pair were alone, how Alfonso died has long been a mystery.
Their mother’s dressmaker claimed Juan Carlos had aimed at Alfonso without realising the gun was loaded. Others blamed a ricochet or an opening door that knocked the boy’s arm. Juan Carlos, it was said, was cleaning a revolver, a gift from the dictator Francisco Franco, when he shot his brother.
The boys’ father, the Count of Barcelona, reportedly grabbed the boy by the neck and bellowed at him: “Swear to me that you didn’t do it on purpose!” The memoir reveals that the count covered Alfonso’s body in a Spanish flag and later threw the pistol into the sea.
Juan Carlos returned to his tough military academy with his relationship with his father in tatters. He wrote: “There is a before and an after.
“It is still difficult for me to speak of it, and I think of it every day … I miss him; I wish I could have him by my side and talk with him.
“I lost a friend, a confidant. He left me with an immense emptiness. Without his death, my life would have been less dark, less unhappy.”
Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son amid a storm of controversy including extramarital affairs and suspicions about financial corruption. His public image crumbled after details emerged in 2012 of an elephant-hunting trip in Botswana with his former mistress Corinna Larsen amid an economic crisis in Spain.
King Felipe VI, his successor, has not invited his father to the official ceremony to mark the anniversary of his coronation on November 21.
But the tragic incident and “appalling” childhood may partly explain the former royal’s poor decision, says his biographer Professor Paul Preston. He said: “I think it explains a lot.
“The privations of his childhood and adolescence might well count for some of the avarice shall we say, the urge to collect money in one way or another.”
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