Laura, the second former employee who spoke with us, worked as his physical therapist. She said that Iglesias groped and kissed her without her consent and repeatedly insulted her. On her last day working for him, she said, the singer pressured her to participate in a threesome, but she refused.

Iglesias told her she was a disgrace to her profession. She said he harassed her with questions about her private life and, while she was helping him with therapy in the pool, forcefully twisted her nipples.

“He squeezes them really hard. And I tell him, ‘That hurts.’ Because it wasn’t just that he touched me. He actually hurt me,” she recalled. “He says, ‘It's because you have big nipples,’ and he continues as if nothing had happened.”

The young Venezuelan woman was 28 years old when she learned she had been hired, after receiving a call from the artist himself in early 2021.

“He said to me, ‘It’s Julio Iglesias. Are you ready for your life to change?’ I said yes. He said, ‘You’re going to travel the world with me.’ And wow—it really did change my life,” she recalled.

The names of these two former employees—as well as those of other witnesses and former employees cited in this report—have been changed to protect their identities. They say they fear possible repercussions due to the singer’s power and fame, and want to avoid stigma and exposure, especially since they have not shared their experiences even with their own families.

For his part, Julio Iglesias has not responded to a detailed list of questions about the accusations sent by elDiario.es and Univision Noticias via text message, email, and mail. One of our journalists also delivered the printed questions in person to his residences in Florida and Punta Cana.

Iglesias did not respond to repeated phone calls. One of his legal representatives, whom we were able to contact, replied to our initial emails but did not respond to questions regarding the accusations.

At elDiario.es and Univision Noticias, we corroborated Rebeca’s testimony with the psychologist who treated her after she left Julio Iglesias’ home, as well as with an acquaintance who provided her with emotional support during the period she worked for him.

A friend of Laura’s who studied psychology confirmed that the physical therapist told her about the alleged abuse at the time it occurred.

Both media outlets corroborated the young women’s statements with extensive documentation related to their employment relationship with the singer and consistent with details of their testimonies.

Former employees provided employment records, photographs, audio recordings, WhatsApp messages, call logs, and work permit applications that Julio Iglesias submitted to the governments of Spain, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic.

Journalists also reviewed the results of gynecological and sexually transmitted disease tests that several domestic workers said they were required to undergo in June 2021. In addition, reporters examined a message sent to the employees’ WhatsApp group in which Iglesias’ household manager asked them to submit their results. “Girls, please send me all the test results so we can see exactly what’s going on,” the message read.

Rebeca said that this same household manager facilitated—and participated in—the sexual demands that Iglesias made of them. Journalists at elDiario.es and Univision Noticias repeatedly sought comment from the manager through multiple channels but did not receive a response to the questions sent to her.

We spoke with Rebeca and Laura on several occasions after they stopped working for Iglesias, and their accounts of the events remained consistent. Although their time at the singer’s Caribbean mansions overlapped, they said they barely interacted with one another. According to both women, this was by design: on Iglesias’ orders, employees were not allowed to socialize with each other.

Because they feared sharing their stories, the interviewees sought legal guidance and were referred to an international organization that defends women’s rights. Through that organization—and of their own volition, without media involvement—they ultimately received legal counsel.

Journalists from elDiario.es and Univision Noticias spoke with more than a dozen former employees—gardeners, painters, and other service staff—who worked at the singer’s homes in the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Spain at various points between the late 1990s and 2023.

Those interviews helped shed light on a climate of isolation, labor disputes, hierarchy, and the fear that Iglesias’ irascible temperament often generated among those who worked for him.

Villa Corales 5

Julio Iglesias spends most of the year at his mansion in Punta Cana, called Villa Corales 5. The gated, guarded residential compound of homes, with names like Bonita Uno, Cenicienta and Balinesa, was built with mahogany, bankirai and Oregon pine. The property also includes reception and service areas, a recording studio, a large swimming pool, and a gym.

A lush garden of palm trees, bougainvillea and greenery almost completely conceals the interior of the property. On one side, it borders the former mansion of Oscar de la Renta, the late Dominican fashion designer. Out front, the deep blue Caribbean Sea is patrolled by Navy frigates keeping watch for paparazzi.

The young women interviewed said that the natural beauty lost its charm during the time they lived there. Using the pandemic as an excuse, Iglesias didn’t allow them to leave the premises on their days off until after three months of work without a break. In the meantime, they remained confined to the guarded villa, unable even to go to the supermarket. Their families heard from them only through phone calls and text messages.

They described a stifling, oppressive environment. Some found a way to escape by sneaking past guards after their shifts. Later, they would secretly return to their dormitories.

The female employees were forbidden from speaking with male staff at the villa, and Iglesias also discouraged them from forming friendships with one another. According to Laura, the singer made this clear through warnings: “He would tell you that you couldn’t trust anyone in the house. ‘Your only friend is me.’”

Before arriving at what she later came to call “the little house of terror,” Rebeca had lived a life without luxuries. Orphaned by her mother, she said she began trying to make ends meet early on. She enrolled in a technical program in tourism but was forced to abandon her studies because she could not afford them.

She worked as a cashier at a cellphone store and sold fresh juices and clothing in a shop. Her dream, she said, was to build a house for her father.

The first time Rebeca left her family home in Santo Domingo was when she started working for Iglesias. "I had never left home, and I was a little naive. I was scared, I won't deny it," she recounted.

Sleepless

In 1963, Julio Iglesias was injured in a car accident. During his hospitalization, doctors discovered a tumor. Now 82, he suffers from back pain as a result of the surgery and has sought relief through exercise and physical therapy.

One night, complaining of pain, Iglesias summoned Rebeca to his bedroom in Punta Cana, according to her account. Once there, she said, he gave her instructions.

“It’s embarrassing for me to say this, but when I went there, he made me suck his penis so he wouldn’t feel pain, and lick his anus,” Rebeca said. “And that’s how I spent the whole night.”

Whenever she appeared sleepy, Iglesias would pull her hair and bring her face closer to his genitals, she recalled. “Obviously, it wasn't something I did willingly or with pleasure,” Rebeca commented. “But he would pull my hair or do something like that to make me continue. And he would say to me, ‘Oh, I feel so much better now that you're doing this... that damn pain is gone.’”

The following morning, Laura, the singer’s physical therapist, asked Iglesias how his night had been. “And he tells me, ‘Well, I couldn't get a wink of sleep,’” she recalled. “‘Poor [Rebeca],’ referring to the maid, ‘spent the whole night giving me a blowjob to see if it would make me sleepy. But no, I couldn't sleep.’”

At first, Laura thought her boss was joking, consistent with his “vulgar” style. She did not ask Rebeca about it because they barely interacted at the home. It wasn’t until both women had stopped working for Iglesias that she got back in touch with Rebeca. “She told me it was real,” Laura said.

Are you "open-minded"?

According to the interviewees, Julio Iglesias approached the young women in similar ways. On the beach or from his golf cart, he would ask whether they were “open-minded” and whether they had boyfriends or children. He asked about their pasts, their parents and families, and their dreams.

Both women said that after a short time, the questions and comments became sexual in nature; he even asked one of them whether she masturbated. Eventually, they said, he pressured them to participate in a threesome with him and another of the household managers, who held a position of authority over them.

The first time he made this proposal to Rebeca was on the villa’s private beach, she recalled. They were in the water with one of the singer’s trusted assistants.

“Are you free?” Iglesias asked her. She replied yes, without fully understanding what he meant. He then asked another question, and she nodded again, she said, without clearly hearing him.

Later, when they returned from the beach, the assistant pulled her aside.

“Are you sure about what you just agreed to?” she asked.

Rebeca said she began to understand what was happening. She went to the kitchen, overwhelmed with nerves. “I was hiding,” she said. “My stomach was churning.”

The assistant then clarified that Iglesias wanted both of them to participate in a threesome.

“She told me, ‘Look, he wants us to sleep together tonight,’” Rebeca recalled. “And I told her I wasn’t going to do it—that I was very nervous and that I didn’t want to. But she told me yes, that I had to.”

After Rebeca finished washing the dishes, she said, she was taken to Iglesias’ bedroom, located at the center of the villa. Before the encounter, the assistant offered her several glasses of wine and shots of tequila, Rebeca said.

“She gave me three or four shots of Patrón tequila, supposedly so I wouldn’t be nervous,” Rebeca said. “I kept telling her I didn’t want to do it—that I didn’t want to do it. And she kept saying yes, trying to convince me, while I kept saying no. The last thing she did to convince me was tell me to pretend.”

Rebeca said that Iglesias then ordered his assistant to “dress her like a Hawaiian.” She said she was made to walk in very high heels she could not manage, wearing one sarong around her torso and another around her hips. According to her account, the singer was in bed, dressed in a T-shirt, with the rest of his body unclothed.

“She asked me if I knew how to walk in heels, and I told her no,” Rebeca said. “I was obviously falling, stumbling.”

According to Rebeca, the assistant suggested that, to make the situation less distressing, she should pretend and cover her vulva with her hand. She said the singer noticed and removed her hand.

“I was a little drunk, because they had given me wine and tequila,” Rebeca said. “They did what they did, and I fell asleep. I don’t remember anything else.”

After being contacted by elDiario.es and Univision Noticias, the assistant identified by Rebeca dismissed the allegations as “nonsense” and said she had worked for Julio Iglesias as a “dancer for many years.” She added that she felt only “gratitude, admiration, and respect” for the singer, whom she described as “a true gentleman and very respectful of all women.”

The Making of a Casanova

Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva, a balladeer and songwriter whose music about love and women has reached audiences around the world, was once a global icon. His name entered the Guinness World Records as the best-selling Latin artist of all time, with an estimated 250 million records sold.

His greatest hits—“Hey,” “La vida sigue igual” and “Soy un truhán, soy un señor”—were heard in some of the world’s most remote corners, including in Tagalog in the Philippines and in Indonesian. His fortune is estimated at $720 million, according to Forbes’ 2025 list of Spanish billionaires.

Iglesias also cultivated another claim during his career: that he had slept with some 3,000 women. Repeated jokes on camera and stories of seduction helped cement his reputation as a casanova.

Iglesias wrote in his autobiography that his body needs “to make love every day, every night.” He concluded that this made him feel "a little bit Arab, a little bit like the sheikh that the newspapers sometimes write about, the one I carry inside me."

He had a particular fascination with threesomes, according to his former Tahitian girlfriend Vaitiare Hirshon, author of the book “Rag Doll” (Muñeca de Trapo).

“Every night there's a different woman in our bed,” she wrote. “They're just how he likes them, always with big breasts and willing to do anything. They are shadows that embrace me, make love to me, and share me with him.”

In her book, the author describes a scene involving Iglesias and a 16-year-old girl in Galicia, Spain. Hirshon, who wrote that she entered a relationship with Iglesias at 18 when he was 40, also alleged that he used cocaine.

“Julio gives me cocaine. I don't want to accept it; I've been drug-free for months. He insists, and I finally snort the line. Then we make love,” she wrote.

We sent questions regarding these allegations to Julio Iglesias and to one of his legal representatives but did not receive a response.

In moments widely framed by the media as playful antics, he was often seen abruptly kissing actresses, television presenters, journalists and fans on the mouth.

“Today, Julio Iglesias would be in jail, because it wasn’t just that women approached him—or that he approached them—but that he also touched them,” said María Eugenia Fernández, a member of the famed Las Trillizas de Oro, who traveled with the singer and his orchestra.

“Today he would be facing a trial that could result in a life sentence,” she added in a 2018 interview on the program Falta de Respeto, remarks that were reported by numerous media outlets. She then clarified that those were different times and different circumstances.

Maintaining the myth of Iglesias as a womanizer was part of the marketing of his image, acknowledged Alfredo Fraile, his friend and manager for 15 years.

“From a marketing standpoint, it suited us to enhance the legend of Iglesias as a ‘Latin lover’ who charmed women—women who, according to the myth, would fall into his arms with a single glance,” Fraile wrote in his book, “Secretos Confesables” (Confessable Secrets).

In addition to Villa Corales 5 in Punta Cana, Iglesias spends his retirement at his other equally luxurious properties, including Lyford Cay, a private community in the Bahamas with a helipad; the Cuatro Lunas estate in Málaga, Spain; and Indian Creek, South Florida, where his wife, former Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger, lives.

Journalists from elDiario.es and Univision Noticias tried to contact Rijnsburger through several messages and phone calls, but Iglesias’ wife did not respond.

"Lucky Princess"

After leaving her job at Iglesias’ residence, Rebeca said she sought treatment from a neuropsychologist, to whom she recounted the sexual abuse she claims to have experienced. With her authorization, elDiario.es and Univision Noticias confirmed her account with the specialist, identified by the initials A.M.

“What she experienced with Julio Iglesias was, among all the issues discussed between August and December of 2022, the central focus for a long time,” A.M. said in a telephone interview.

The neuropsychologist stated that during the first sessions he noticed that “there was something she needed to talk about, but she had difficulty expressing it.” When Rebeca finally recounted what had happened, she did so “with great shame.” He recalls how, during the therapy sessions, she told him that she had suffered “penetration with fingers” and that Iglesias “forced her to be with another girl.”

“She could say she felt obligated even though she couldn't say exactly why. Because it wasn't like they were holding a gun to her head or a knife to her throat. He made her feel very bad,” he added.

According to A.M., the isolation Rebeca experienced as a live-in domestic worker was a key factor: “Punta Cana is not Rebeca's city. Rebeca lived here in Santo Domingo. The problem here is that you're alone, that you don't want to be abandoned, that you don't want to be harmed. We don't know what the repercussions of dealing with a powerful person might be. It can affect you and your family.”

At the house, the workday began at 8 a.m. and ended at 11 p.m., she recounted. After that, she said, she was expected to go to the boss’ room, where the sexual abuse could last until two or three in the morning.

Headaches were not accepted as an excuse, Rebeca recalled. “He would say, 'Give the girl a pill.’ And they would give me a pill.”

Neither was menstruation.

“He would say something like, ‘put in a tampon,’ because, of course, he didn't put his fingers inside me that day, but he did other sexual things with me,” Rebeca said.

The young woman explained that during sexual encounters she preferred to close her eyes. “I didn't even look him in the face,” she said.

Rebeca recalls the moment she most forcefully refused to have a sexual encounter with Iglesias: it came after an argument in which the singer had severely insulted her.

“So when I told him no, that I didn't want to be with him, he started insulting me very badly, saying things like, ‘How can you not want to be with me? There are so many models dying to be with me,’” she explained.

“You’re a lucky princess,” she remembers him saying. She thought: How can I be a lucky princess if I work more than 16 hours a day? She didn’t dare say anything, but she burst into tears.

“He was trying to tell me that I had no right, under any circumstances, to say no to him—to reject him,” she added.

The young woman described a typical day in her life at the villa. She would begin at 8 a.m., cleaning the gazebo, then prepare Iglesias’ breakfast, which she served around 11, when the singer woke up. She then had to accompany him to the beach for his swim and rush back to rinse off the seawater and begin cooking lunch, which had to be ready by 3 p.m.

For a time, she served him unsalted lentils—his favorite dish—until he began complaining that it tasted like soap. After lunch, she washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen and, without pause, began preparing dinner, which she served at 11 p.m. While Iglesias ate, she said, she was required to stand with her hands behind her back, ready to respond to any request.

Rebeca's anxiety was so severe that she began experiencing strong chest pains, according to her account. In early May, she underwent medical tests at a hospital in Punta Cana to monitor her tachycardia. Univision Noticias and elDiario.es received access to one of her test results.

Her therapist also observed the same problem in the young woman: “When [Rebecca] came to therapy, she presented with significant symptoms of a mood disorder. Specifically, she had a generalized anxiety disorder,” he said.

Furthermore, A.M. identified that Rebeca suffered from dysthymia, a depressive disorder that was "persistent over time," even before her time at Julio Iglesias' house. When asked by the journalists whether this disorder could have worsened as a result of the alleged abuse, A.M. responded: “Yes, I would say it affected her enormously, particularly in terms of her self-esteem. Many of the symptoms typically seen in people with depression had worsened significantly in Rebeca’s case.”

A.M. recalled that toward the end of the sessions, Rebeca “was experiencing many cardiological symptoms that are sometimes typical of anxiety disorders.” At their final appointment, he told her not to pay for the session and to use the money instead to undergo a cardiac examination to rule out a biological cause for the tachycardia. They did not meet again after that session.

A.M. said he had known Rebeca for some time, having previously been her English teacher, and that there was a relationship of trust between them. Aware of her financial situation, he said that when she contacted him to begin therapy, he charged her only a fraction of his usual fee—about $15 per session. Despite this arrangement, the therapy ended because of Rebeca’s financial difficulties, he said.

In total, the neuropsychologist said they conducted 15 sessions. At our request, he provided copies of his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and his master’s degree in neuropsychology from the University of Salamanca, obtained in 2017. A.M. also shared his registration number as a licensed psychologist with a specialization in clinical psychology from the Ministry of Public Health of the Dominican Republic.

Gynecological exams, HIV testing and pregnancy tests

In mid-2021, several domestic workers said they were taken—without prior explanation—to a private hospital in Punta Cana for examinations unrelated to their jobs. The medical checkups included gynecological exams, pregnancy tests and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

“That’s how everything was in the house. He imposed his will. He didn’t ask. We were nobody to him. He did whatever he wanted with us,” Rebeca said.

Two vans picked up about a dozen of the women and took them to the clinic. All were examined by a gynecologist, according to Carolina, another domestic worker we interviewed, and Rebeca, both of whom were part of the group. elDiario.es and Univision Noticias had access to the results of their examinations, signed by a doctor in Punta Cana in June 2021.

In a WhatsApp group chat with the service workers, Iglesias’ manager asked them to submit their test results, a request reviewed by elDiario.es and Univision Noticias.

One of the women replied, “By photo or in person? We all have to send the results.”

The manager responded, “In person. If you have to take anything or do whatever it takes to be completely healthy.”

Laura, Iglesias’ physical therapist, wasn’t asked to undergo testing. She recalled a conversation in which the artist told her he had medical tests performed on his domestic workers because, according to him, Dominican women “are very dirty.”

Ángela Rivera, an attorney and president of the Foundation for Women's Development in Punta Cana, told reporters she was surprised to learn that domestic workers were being required to undergo such examinations.

“It’s suspiciously unusual,” she said. “I don’t understand why. A gynecological exam is performed only when a person chooses to have an internal examination. It would make sense if someone suspected an infection, or if a husband, partner, or lover requested testing to determine health status.”

The Dominican Republic’s AIDS Law also imposes fines and compensation for “the request by any private employer for HIV or HIV antibody testing.”

In addition, International Labour Organization Convention No. 183, ratified by the Dominican Republic, requires states to ensure that “maternity does not constitute a ground for discrimination in employment.” The convention prohibits employers from subjecting women to tests, except in narrowly defined cases where national law bars pregnant women from specific jobs or where the work poses a risk to their health or that of the fetus—for example, employment in an X-ray facility.

According to ILO sources consulted by elDiario.es, the conventions ratified by the Dominican Republic, which are legally binding, make clear that such practices are discriminatory.

“Gynecological examinations and pregnancy tests without justification constitute discrimination on the basis of sex, both in hiring and during employment, since they are only performed on women,” the sources said.

Neither Julio Iglesias nor his legal representative responded to questions about the tests that employees say they were subjected to. Journalists also attempted on multiple occasions—by phone call, text message, and WhatsApp—to contact the manager involved in administering the tests, but she did not respond to the accusations.

A gentleman goes rogue

Laura, who earned a degree in physical therapy in Venezuela, emigrated to Colombia because of the difficult situation in her home country. From there, she sent the photographs and resume requested by the house manager and began working for Iglesias in early 2021.

When she was offered the position, she immediately recognized the artist’s name. As she later said, he was a singer her parents and grandmother listened to.

She was initially impressed by Iglesias’ mansion in the Bahamas, where she was assigned a room with a sea view. A few days later, she traveled with the singer on his private jet to Punta Cana International Airport, a terminal in which he retains a small ownership stake after having once been among its principal owners.

Iglesias paid Laura $2,000 a month, four times what she earned in Bogotá. At first, she recalled, the man of the house appeared friendly and generous.

The manager accommodated her alone in the cabin known as Bonita Uno. One of her first days there, Laura said, Iglesias took her on a ride around the property in his golf cart, asking questions about her past and her dreams.

A few days later, Laura said, the same man who had given her a tour of his “paradise” and promised to take her around the world was calling her a “stupid bitch” and an “idiot”—what she described as his favorite insult.

The therapy sessions soon became a torment. Laura said she felt increasingly frustrated as Iglesias repeatedly dismissed her professional recommendations and bombarded her with inappropriate questions.

“To me, he was like a dirty old man. Everything he talked about was sexual,” she said. “He would ask me: ‘Oh, when do you masturbate?’”

Laura said she stopped wearing T-shirts without a bra to prevent Iglesias from pinching her nipples. “He felt entitled to grab and squeeze them, and I told him not to,” she said. “He would tell me that if I wore those kinds of blouses, it was because I wanted my nipples to be grabbed.”

Journalists at elDiario.es and Univision Noticias corroborated Laura’s account with one of her closest friends, identified by the initials P.M., who was studying psychology and living in Argentina at the time. P.M. said she was shocked when Laura told her she had been groped.

“The one I remember most was when she told me that he squeezed her nipple,” said P.M. “I couldn’t believe it. Like, he squeezed your nipple?”

Laura said he constantly insisted they have threesomes. "In every session, every time we were alone, it became repetitive."

During the time she worked there, Laura said, he touched her breasts and kissed her without asking. “He just did it. And you feel so vulnerable,” she said.

“At that moment, I thought, ‘What can I do? If I say no, I’ll be fired. If I push him away—because I wanted to push him away—he’s still abusing me. I’ll be fired, and I could hurt him.’”

"The little house of terror"

Because of that prohibition, Rebeca said she remained motionless when Iglesias stuck his fingers inside her anus, even as she begged him to stop. “No, no, no, sir. No, sir. I don’t want to,” she recalled saying.

“He puts his fingers in there, which for me was very, very, very, very painful,” she explained. “And I was like, ‘Please stop.’ I couldn't even grab his hand at that moment, it hurt so much and I didn’t know what to do. I had to stay there until he understood that it was enough.”

She felt the same sense of helplessness when Iglesias inserted his fingers into her vagina. “He was very, very rough with me, and that caused me a lot of pain,” she explained. “Sometimes it would last almost an hour, and he still wouldn't even finish. And I would think, ‘My God, when is this going to end?’”

It was an agony made worse by Iglesias’ habit of slapping her very hard, she added.

Frequently, Rebeca said, at the end of their sexual encounters, Iglesias would tell her, “Rebequita, we’re not doing anything wrong. We’re not hurting anyone. Why are we such damn fools?” He would then reproach himself for not devoting more time to writing his memoirs.

At other times, she said, he made comments that revealed his fear that details of what was happening in his mansions might become public.

Rebeca recalled his warnings: “If you say anything about me, nobody will believe you. You don't have any proof of anything.”

Laura said she also heard the singer say the public would always believe him, "because he was Julio Iglesias and you were nobody."

Exhausted and with swollen legs, Rebeca said she would finally lie down in her room, only to receive a message or call from her boss telling her he was waiting for her in his bed. According to her account, she was expected to lie down between him and one of the managers.

Rebeca’s nighttime trips from her bedroom to Iglesias’ room did not go unnoticed by her roommates. Carolina told reporters that she saw Rebeca at least three times walking toward the singer’s bedroom around 11 p.m.

“I watched her leave but she didn't come back.”

Carolina said she learned the truth from Rebeca herself, when Rebeca contacted her after they both stopped working for Iglesias in 2021.

“She confirmed they had an intimate relationship, but that it wasn't consensual, as I had thought,” Carolina stated. “She said it was abuse.”

Carolina said she was never sexually abused by Julio Iglesias.

Remote control

In total, Laura worked for Iglesias for nearly five and a half months, split into two periods. The first ended when she was fired.

“He said he couldn’t tolerate me—he couldn’t stand me,” she recalled.

According to her account, the singer wanted to buy her a return ticket to Colombia, where she had been living when she was hired. Laura told him she wanted to remain in the Dominican Republic. She said he became angry and told her she would receive no benefit from having worked for him.

Iglesias asked one of his managers to accompany her to the airport to make sure she boarded her flight. Laura said she managed to slip away and remain in the Dominican Republic.

After that, she said, she began receiving controlling phone calls from him. “‘Hello! How are you? How are things going? What’s the weather like in Bogotá? What are you doing? Where are you staying?’” she recalled him asking.

About a month later, Laura posted on social media that she had started a new job at a physiotherapy center in the Dominican Republic.

“I don’t think three hours had passed before he called me,” she said. “He asked where I was, what I was doing in Santo Domingo, and told me to pack my suitcase and go to his house in Punta Cana.”

Iglesias then offered to take her with him to Spain. Laura agreed to return for three months, she said, explaining that afterward she needed to obtain a professional certification.

The trip to Spain was cancelled when Iglesias learned that someone in his house in Marbella had contracted Covid-19, according to Laura.

During this second phase, Laura recalled, Iglesias appeared less abusive. But as she waited in the Bahamas for a trip that never materialized, the cumulative effects of the earlier abuse began to take a toll on her health. She said she suffered panic attacks and gastritis.

“I was in my room, and I started experiencing tachycardia. My hands were getting sweaty, my head began to hurt, and I felt a sense of desperation—like I wanted to run away. My heart was beating very fast,” she said.

During one of those episodes, Laura called her friend P.M., who drew on her background in psychology to help her cope. According to P.M., they spoke three or four times a week, always by video call from Laura’s bedroom, just before she began her physical therapy sessions with Iglesias—the time when her anxiety was usually at its worst.

"I feel like she turned to me because she didn't know how to deal with the things she was feeling mentally and physically," her friend said.

Laura asked her for tools to manage panic attacks, and P.M. replied, “There are no tools; you have to get out of it yourself.”

When Laura finally quit in mid-2021, she said, Iglesias made what she described as a “blunt” proposition. He waited until dinnertime, put his hand on her leg, and told her that after dinner she was to put on a long shirt with no underwear beneath and then go to his room, where he said he, the manager and Laura would have a threesome.

Laura said she refused “with great respect and humility.” After she did so, she recalled, the singer slapped her leg hard and said, “You idiot. I don’t like you.”

A turbulent past

Gladys, a cook who worked for Iglesias in the late 1990s, said that even back then, Iglesias hired domestic workers with a similar profile: young women with dark hair and skin. (Gladys is a fictitious name.)

The former cook shared a bedroom with several other domestic workers. Older than the others (she was in her forties), she said they confided in her about their experiences with Iglesias and asked her for advice. Several told her that he pursued them for sex and that they gave in out of necessity.

“They were very poor girls,” she said.

Gladys said she urged them to leave if they did not want to continue the sexual acts with the singer, but they told her it was not an easy choice, because both they and their families depended on the income from the villa.

After she stopped working at the villa, Gladys said she did not maintain contact with them.

The former cook remembered Iglesias as an angry man who verbally abused employees at his villa in Punta Cana. She said that one worker began losing his hair due to the stress and insults. “He gets irritated by anything,” she added.

We corroborated her account with that former employee, who confirmed that he had lost some of his hair because of the stress caused by Iglesias’ angry outbursts. “May God have mercy on his soul, his body will burn in hell,” said the former employee, who declined to provide further statements out of fear of retaliation.

The oppressive and isolating atmosphere described in Iglesias’ homes is consistent with the testimony of other employees who worked for him at different times.

One of them is Rogelio Villanueva, who began working for the singer in 1999 as a painter and driver and doing repair work at his homes in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.

“He never wants the men to socialize with the women,” Villanueva said. “The men stay in their area and the women in theirs. That’s why employees there are very afraid of him—that he might see them together and fire them because of it.”

Villanueva said that during the 22 years he worked for Iglesias, they maintained a respectful relationship. However, he heard Iglesias insult others: "He speaks poorly to many people," he stated, adding that Iglesias “likes to call people idiots.” The former painter sued Iglesias in 2020 for nonpayment of employment benefits after being fired.

Tinder leak

In September 2021, Rebeca slipped out of the villa to meet Raúl, a young Spaniard she had met through the dating app Tinder, who would ultimately give her the final push to leave Iglesias’ mansion. (Raúl is a fictitious name.)

In one of their first encounters, Rebeca had an unexpected reaction that left him bewildered: she burst into tears for no apparent reason, Raúl recalled in an interview with elDiario.es.

Little by little, Raúl said, he began to understand why. “She told me that at one point she said she didn’t want to have sex anymore, and that the other man became angry,” he recalled. “The thing is, that man was abusing a position of great power.”

Around that time, Raúl said, he watched a Netflix documentary series about convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, in which survivors described the sexual abuse and intimidation they endured.

Raúl told Rebeca that what she was describing resembled what the documentary showed. “This guy is exactly like what Rebeca tells me about Julio Iglesias—he’s literally just like him,” he said.

Little by little, he said, that realization gave her the strength to leave.

"I want to leave today"

At the end of October, Rebeca decided to write to her manager: “Miss, I apologize for the inconvenience, but I want to go home. I won’t be working anymore. […] I’m very tired, and I’m not asking for a vacation—I’m resigning. I need to be with my family. I need to resume my studies. […] I want to leave today.”

After hearing the news, Rebeca recalled, Iglesias called her in a conciliatory tone. He assumed the young woman had argued with one of her housemates and, she said, it never occurred to him that he himself might be the reason for her decision.

Rebeca left the villa for the last time in a taxi. Her Spanish friend from Tinder was waiting for her at the Blue Mall shopping center in Punta Cana.

Raúl described Rebeca’s expression as “relief and happiness” when she came out to meet him. “She was glad she had made that decision.”

What came next was a long road to psychological recovery marked by episodes of depression, Rebeca explained.

“When I left that place, I felt very sad,” she said. “I went out with my brother and my friends, and I remember one time we went to a river and I went for a walk and I couldn't stop crying. I cried so much. I wanted to stay home and not go out.”

The young woman said that even months after leaving Corales 5, she still couldn’t answer a question that kept circling in her mind: why had she obeyed Iglesias’ orders?

She decided to ask the artificial-intelligence application ChatGPT. “I asked how to describe feeling obligated to do something without it being about fear of losing my job,” she explained. “I had other fears. I felt frozen, like my mind was acting without thinking things through, even though I knew I didn’t want to do it. What is that called?”

ChatGPT responded that it was a case of "forced submission."

Rebeca said that, before contacting elDiario.es and in an effort to obtain proof of what had happened, she sent a message to Iglesias on WhatsApp telling him that she loved him very much and wanted to talk.

He called her, but she couldn't answer. She said he didn't try again. In October 2024, she gave her first interview to elDiario.es, and in September 2025 to Univision Noticias.

After years of reflection, Rebeca said she decided to tell her story for several reasons. First, she said, she was doing it for herself—to be at peace.

“I suffered a lot. I was very, very sad for a long time, and I blamed myself very harshly—I judged myself very harshly,” she said, breaking down in tears.

But she also said she was speaking out for other potential victims. “I want to empower girls,” she said. “It’s not their fault what’s happening. It’s his fault—he’s using them as he pleases.”

“I would like to speak to any girl who is thinking about going to work there in the future, so she knows what life is really like,” she added. “So she doesn’t go in blindly like I did. I went looking for a job, looking for a way to grow, and I encountered someone who ruined my life at that time.”

If you have experienced sexual abuse, organizations and trained professionals are available to listen, provide support, and offer confidential, free assistance in Spanish. Below are some of the groups that support survivors:

If you have experienced or are aware of events similar to those described in this report, we invite you to contact us. Leave us a voice message at +1-866-224-4930. All testimonies will be handled with complete confidentiality.