Julio Iglesias Accused of Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking

Veteran Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has been accused of sexual assault by two female former employees who say they were subjected “to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in an atmosphere of control and constant harassment”.

The women – a domestic worker and a physical therapist who were employed at Iglesias’s Caribbean mansions in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas – alleged the assaults took place in 2021.

The assault came to light at the end of a three-year joint investigation by the Spanish news site elDiario.es and the Spanish-language TV network Univision Noticias, which collected testimonies from 15 former employees who worked for the 82-year-old singer between the late 1990s and 2023.

“These interviews describe the women’s conditions of isolation, labour disputes, the hierarchical structure of the staff, and the tense atmosphere created by Iglesias’s short-tempered character,” elDiario.es said in its report on Tuesday.

“The two women who reported sexual assault were interviewed repeatedly over more than a year and their accounts remained consistent throughout. Their statements are supported by extensive documentary evidence, such as photographs, call logs, WhatsApp messages, visas, medical reports and other documents.”

One of the women, referred to as Rebecca to protect her identity, said that Iglesias, who was 77 at the time, would often call her to his room at the end of the working day and make unwanted touches.

“He used me almost every night,” she told elDiario.es and Univision Noticias. “I felt like an object, like a slave.”

Rebecca claimed the assaults habitually took place in the presence – and with the participation – of another Iglesias employee who was her superior.

Another woman, known by the pseudonym of Laura, told the two media outlets that Iglesias kissed her on the mouth and touched her chest without her permission and against her will.

“We were at the beach and he came up to me and touched me,” she said, adding that a similar incident took place by the pool at the singer’s villa in Punta Cana, a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic.

Both women said workers were subjected to a tense and controlling atmosphere and spoke of how Iglesias “normalised abuse”. Rebecca said: “That house should be called the little house of terror because it is a nightmare – something truly horrible.”

Accounts from former employees about the recruitment system reveal a process that began with social media advertisements aimed at young women.

Applicants were asked to provide pictures of their faces and full bodies.

Rebecca and Laura said Iglesias asked them intimate questions shortly after they arrived. They say that he asked to see their chests on several occasions and also touched them.

ElDiario.es reported later on Tuesday that the two women had filed a formal complaint with prosecutors at Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, accusing Iglesias of human trafficking and sexual assault.

Journalists from elDiario.es and Univision made repeated efforts to contact Iglesias and his lawyer through various channels but received no response to the questions sent by email, phone and letter.

However, the woman whom Rebecca identified as her first supervisor at the mansion in Punta Cana – and with whom she claimed to have had her first sexual encounter with Iglesias – dismissed the allegations as nonsense.

She said she had only “gratitude, admiration and respect for the great artist and human being that he is”, and described him as “humble, generous, a great gentleman, and very respectful to all women”.

Spain’s labour minister, Yolanda Díaz, who is also a deputy prime minister, called the women’s testimony “chilling”, saying they had described “sexual assaults and a situation of slavery”.

But Iglesias, who has sold more than 300m records during his six-decade career, was defended by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the outspoken right-wing president of the Madrid region.

She said her administration would not heed calls from the left-wing Más Madrid party for Iglesias to be stripped of the honours bestowed on him by the regional and city authorities.

“Women are being attacked and raped in Iran with the complicit silence of the far left,” she wrote in a message on X. “The region of Madrid will never contribute to the discrediting of artists and still less so when it comes to the most universal of all singers: Julio Iglesias.”