Julio Iglesias, a Spanish crooner with a decades-long career, is one of the most successful Latin performers of all time, but two former colleagues have accused him of sexual offenses.
This Madrid native went from being a reluctant participant in a seashore singing contest to an international heartthrob thanks to his beautiful lyrics, constant tan, and flashing smile.
Iglesias, who has sold over 300 million albums, stated in 2003, “I created a style and here I am 35 years later.”
On September 23, 1943, Julio Iglesias de la Cueva was born in the Spanish capital into a wealthy family. His father was a gynecologist.
He was a goalie for Real Madrid’s youth squad, but his football hopes were dashed at the age of 20 due to a car accident and a protracted sickness.
As he underwent recovery, he began writing songs and playing the guitar as a way to kill time.
Iglesias sent a demo of some of his songs to a record label while he was a law student in the hopes that others would perform them.
Rather, in July 1968, the corporation pushed him to participate in a songwriter’s competition in the well-known Mediterranean resort of Benidorm.
After winning with his ballad “La vida sigue igual” (meaning “Life remains the same”), he joined with Columbia Records’ Latin music division, Discos Columbia, and started touring the globe.
Iglesias, who has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, has collaborated with well-known performers like Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder.
He has long had a reputation as a “Latin lover” and is willing to talk about his romantic adventures in interviews. He enjoys expensive wines and delicious food.
In 2004, Iglesias stated, “I like to be loved, that’s why I do this job,” adding that he cherished “the love and tenderness of a woman above all else.”
In 1984, the sultry singer’s duet with Willy Nelson, “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,” helped her break through in the competitive US market.
He has, however, accomplished much more than merely singing in English. Among other languages, he has released albums in French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Tagalog, making him one of the most well-known pop crossover singers.
He has received numerous honors, including as the Spanish Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts and an honorary lifetime achievement Grammy.
In an interview with AFP in 2008 that coincided with his 65th birthday, he stated, “The significance of my life is what I was able to leave other people in terms of emotions.”
-The case of paternity-
He was one of the famous people listed in the 2021 Pandora Papers leak, which revealed the holdings and offshore activities of some of the wealthiest people on the planet.
After two women accused him of sexual abuse while he was employed at his properties in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic in 2021, Iglesias is now once again in the public eye.
The women, a physiotherapist and a domestic helper, claim Iglesias monitored their phones, harassed them sexually, and restricted their ability to leave the home where they worked.
Iglesias, 82, has not addressed the charges in public.
The singer has five children from his marriage to Miranda Rijnsburger of the Netherlands and three from his marriage to Isabel Preysler of the Philippines.
In 2019, a Spanish court determined that Iglesias was also the biological father of a 43-year-old guy born to a former Portuguese dancer who claimed to have had an affair with the singer.
Enrique Iglesias, the youngest of Iglesias’s sons with Isabel Preysler, has had a significant influence on international music charts with his unique Latino pop style.
