Juan Carlos Accidentally Shot Alfonso

On March 29, 1956, the future Spanish king Juan Carlos I, then 18, was involved in the fatal shooting of his 14-year-old brother, Infante Alfonso, at their family home in Estoril, Portugal. The brothers were playing with a .22-caliber pistol when it discharged, and the bullet struck Alfonso in the forehead. Accounts differ over exactly how the gun fired, although several state that Juan Carlos pulled the trigger without knowing it was loaded. In his 2025 memoir, Juan Carlos described the shooting as an accident and said he thought about his brother's death every day.

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