Juan Carlos I of Spain Juan Carlos I of Spain Juan Carlos I (; Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a former King of Spain, reigning from 1975 until his abdication in 2014. Juan Carlos is the grandson of Alfonso XIII, the last king of Spain before the abolition of the monarchy in 1931 and the subsequent declaration of the Second Spanish Republic. Juan Carlos was born in Rome, Italy, during his family's exile. "Generalísimo" Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator who initiated the civil war by means of a coup d'état against the constitutional republic in
Juan Carlos I of Spain 2013 at Madrid's Quirón hospital. In April 2018, Juan Carlos was admitted to hospital for a surgery on his right knee. After the King's son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín was accused of corruption (the "Urdangarín affair"), the King in 2011 for the first time detailed the yearly royal budget of 8.3 million euros, excluding expenses such as the electricity bill, paid by the State. Spanish news media speculated about the King's future in early 2014, following criticism and family scandal; the King's chief of staff in a briefing denied that the 'abdication option' was being considered. On the morning of 2 June