World acclaimed Spanish born singer Julio Iglesias has been accused of sexual assault by two women working at his properties in the Dominica Republic and the Bahamas.
The women alleged that he constantly abused them and they worked in a violent environment.
The allegations, made in reports by Spanish news site elDiario.es and US outlet Univision, are being investigated by Spain’s judiciary.
The 82-years-old singer employed the two women at his properties in Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, and Lyford Cay, in the Bahamas. According to their testimonies, the sexual assaults took place in 2021.
Iglesias has been a household name in Spain since the 1960s and has sold millions of records worldwide.
However, a woman identified as a manager of one of the singer’s Caribbean properties said the claims were “nonsense”.
One of the women interviewed, a domestic worker whose name was changed to Rebeca in the reports, said he would regularly call her to his room at the end of the day and would touch her inappropriately without consent.
“He used me almost every night,” she said. “I felt like an object, like a slave.”
Rebeca, who is Dominican and was 22 when the alleged events described took place, also alleged that Iglesias had forced her to take part in threesomes with another female member of staff. She also described the singer slapping her in the face and grabbing her genitals.
The other woman, a Venezuelan physical therapist named as Laura in the article, said Iglesias had touched her breasts and kissed her on the mouth against her will. She added that he constantly threatened to fire her, controlled how much food she ate and asked her about when her period was due.
“He always said I was fat and had to lose weight,” Laura said, describing a working environment of “normalised abuse”.
Although she said she had frequently rejected his sexual advances, “there were girls who couldn’t say no. And he did what he wanted with them”.
Their reports cite other former employees of Iglesias who describe a threatening, highly stressful atmosphere for those working for him.
It has emerged that Rebeca and Laura filed a legal complaint on 5 January against Iglesias for sexual assault and human trafficking before the national court, which investigates crimes allegedly committed beyond Spain’s borders.
An old friend of Iglesias, Jaime Peñafiel, labelled the accusations “absolute lies”.
However, the equality minister in Spain’s Socialist-led government, Ana Redondo, said she hoped the case would be investigated “all the way”.
“When there is no consent there is assault,” she posted on social media.
Ione Belarra, leader of the far-left Podemos party, called for an end to “the silence” in cases of sexual assault by “famous assailants who are protected by their money,” BBC