Juan Carlos I to Publish Memoirs in November

"My father always advised me not to write my memoirs. Kings do not confess. And certainly not publicly. Their secrets remain buried in the shadows of palaces. Why do I disobey him today? Why have I changed my mind? Because I feel my history is being stolen." These are the words of Juan Carlos I, who, defying paternal advice, has a date with readers at the end of the year, as confirmed by Planeta publishing house on Monday.

November 12, 2025, will be the D-day when the royal memoirs will simultaneously hit bookstores in France and Spain, here under the Planeta label, the publisher that acquired the rights when the literary agency marketing it put it on the market, and under the Stock label in the neighbouring country.

'Reconciliation' will be the title of a work whose publication contract details remain unknown. In the twilight of his life and far from his family, the monarch is preparing to make his final confession. "I have no right to cry," he asserts. But he simultaneously claims his right "to seek his longed-for reconciliation with the country he loves and misses so much," according to his publishers.

Written in the first person, his publishers unreservedly describe the publication as a "historic event." The emeritus has penned his memoirs alongside his Franco-Venezuelan biographer, historian Laurence Debray, who is also the author of the essay 'Mon roi déchu' ('My Fallen King') and 'Daughter of Revolutionaries', which garnered several awards in France.

"If His Majesty has decided to recount his history after nearly forty years of reign, it is because exile in Abu Dhabi, part of the published opinion, and, why not, his own mistakes have ultimately overshadowed his trajectory and his fundamental contributions to the success of Spanish democracy," the editors of 'Reconciliation' advance, which "details the private side of a public life."

"These are memoirs rich in anecdotes that do not shy away from the most significant episodes of our recent history, but neither do they avoid the joys nor the bad moments of his intimate and personal life," confirm sources from Planeta. They follow the memoirs that Barbara Rey, actress and former lover of the monarch, has just published under the same label. However, sources familiar with the original advance that there are episodes of the emeritus's life that are not mentioned in the text, such as his relationship with Bárbara Rey, who has recently made headlines. "That story does not feature even a single line in Don Juan Carlos's memoirs," the cited sources acknowledge.

The memoirs record a long and changing journey "that begins in a country immersed in a fratricidal war and with a young Juan Carlos anchored to a destiny that does not belong to him, but who, step by step, avoiding a thousand plots and gaining the trust of some and others, ends up becoming the main actor in the radical transformation of Spain into the modern and prosperous state it is today."

Written "with an open heart and without concessions," for his publishers, the work "navigates between the two exiles that mark the beginning and end of his life — the forced one, in Estoril, and the voluntary one, in Abu Dhabi — and through it pass many of the most prominent protagonists of contemporary history."

On the cover advanced this Monday by the Spanish publishers, Don Juan Carlos appears dressed in the full dress uniform of a Captain General of the Army, wearing decorations such as the Golden Fleece or the light blue sash of the Order of Charles III.

In France, the announcement of the publication date was accompanied by a note for booksellers with the cover photo and a handwritten note from King Juan Carlos "Dear French booksellers and readers, I am thrilled to present to you my memoirs, written in French. Here is the story of my life, with all sincerity. JUAN CARLOS R," writes the emeritus.