Two women who previously worked for Julio Iglesias accuse him of sexual assault, alleging the Spanish singer touched them inappropriately, humiliated and insulted them as part of what they describe as a long-standing pattern of control and harassment.
The allegations were revealed Tuesday night following a three-year joint investigation by the Spanish news site elDiario.es and the Univision television network. The investigation collected testimony from 15 former employees who worked for the 82-year-old singer from the late 1990s through 2023.
At the same time, the two women filed a formal complaint in Spain accusing Iglesias of human trafficking and sexual assault. According to their accounts, the women — a housekeeper and a physiotherapist employed at Iglesias’ estates in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas — say the alleged incidents took place in 2021.
They also described working conditions marked by isolation, labor disputes, a rigid hierarchical structure among staff and a tense atmosphere that they attribute to the singer’s short temper. The investigation noted that the two women who reported sexual assault were interviewed repeatedly for more than a year and that their accounts remained consistent throughout that period. According to the journalists who conducted the investigation, the testimonies are supported by extensive documentary material, including photographs, call logs, WhatsApp messages, residency visas, medical records and other materials.
One of the two women, who remain anonymous, said Iglesias kissed her and touched her breasts against her will and repeatedly threatened to fire her. “We were on the beach and he came up to me and touched my nipples,” she said, adding that a similar incident occurred near the pool at the singer’s villa in the Dominican Republic. She said he “normalized abuse” and that “he always told me I was fat and that I had to lose weight.” She also said she was sometimes able to push him away, but that “there were girls who couldn’t say no, and he did whatever he wanted with them.”
The second woman said Iglesias routinely summoned her to his room at the end of the workday and had sex with her without her consent. “He used me almost every night. I felt like an object, like a slave,” she said. She added that the assaults often took place with the involvement of another Iglesias employee who was her supervisor. “This house should be called the ‘house of horrors,’ because it’s a nightmare — something truly horrific,” she said.
According to additional testimony, Iglesias tended to recruit employees while seeking primarily young women, who were asked to send both headshots and full-body photographs. The two women said that shortly after they began working, Iglesias asked them intimate questions such as “Do you like women?”, “Do you like threesomes?” and “Have you had breast surgery?” They said he asked them on several occasions to expose their breasts and touched them.
Iglesias and his lawyer have not responded to the reports. However, the woman identified by the first accuser as her supervisor, whom she said was involved in her first sexual encounter with Iglesias, denied the allegations. She said she feels only “gratitude, appreciation and respect for the artist and the great person he is,” describing him as “modest, generous, a true gentleman and very respectful of women.”