Spanish prosecutors said on Tuesday that they were investigating claims that the Spanish singer Julio Iglesias had sexually abused two of his former employees.
The two former employees filed a complaint with a Spanish high court on Jan. 5, according to officials there. On the same day, two Spanish news outlets published a three-year joint investigation into broader allegations of sexual assault and harassment by Mr. Iglesias.
Russell L. King, who is listed on his website as Mr. Iglesias’s lawyer, did not immediately return a request for comment. Sony Music, the singer’s record label, also did not immediately return a request for comment, and a message sent through the singer’s official website went unanswered. The Spanish outlets that conducted the investigation, the news site elDiario.es and the television network Univision Noticias, wrote that Mr. Iglesias had not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Mr. Iglesias, 82, has sold hundreds of millions of records and achieved international success over his six-decade career for his love ballads, including his 1984 recording of “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” with Willie Nelson, which became a hit in the United States. Mr. Iglesias is a beloved figure in Spain, and his website introduces him as “the best-selling Latin artist in history.” He is also the father of the singer Enrique Iglesias.
Prosecutors did not release further information about the accusations. The New York Times has not independently verified the claims made in the joint investigation by the Spanish outlets.
The journalists included the testimonies of 15 former employees who worked for the elder Mr. Iglesias between the late 1990s and 2023. None of them spoke on the record.
The women described a climate of intimidation, abuse and harassment, where women were recruited based on their looks and were subjected to inappropriate questions from Mr. Iglesias about their sexual preferences and anatomy.
Two women, who went unnamed and were identified as having worked for the singer as a domestic worker and a physical therapist in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, described how they were assaulted or coerced by superiors to engage sexually with him in 2021.
One of the women, who went by a pseudonym, told elDiario.es and Univision Noticias in graphic manner how Mr. Iglesias sexually abused her almost every night.
The other woman, who was also identified by a pseudonym, told the media outlets that Mr. Iglesias had inappropriately touched her against her will.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative governor of the Madrid area, said on social media that the region would “never contribute to the discrediting of artists and still less so when it comes to the most universal of all singers: Julio Iglesias.”
At a press briefing in Madrid, Elma Saiz, a minister in the left-wing government, said that the accusations would be investigated “to the very end” because there could be “no room for impunity in any area of society.” She added, “We will not look the other way.”
José Bautista contributed reporting.
Jason Horowitz is the Madrid bureau chief for The Times, covering Spain, Portugal and the way people live throughout Europe.
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