Julio Iglesias sues Deputy PM Díaz for €50,000 over abuse remarks

Julio Iglesias has filed a civil lawsuit in Spain’s Supreme Court against Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, demanding €50,000 in compensation. The singer accuses the leader of the Sumar coalition of "unlawful interference with his right to honour and privacy" over public statements she made regarding sexual abuse allegations brought by two former employees. Díaz rejected a prior conciliation bid, arguing her remarks caused no reputational damage, which prompted the high-court action.

The legal dispute stems from comments Díaz made in January on her Bluesky account and during an appearance on RTVE’s ‘La Hora de la 1’. According to Iglesias’s complaint, the deputy prime minister voiced “clear prejudices” by asserting that “sexual abuse was taking place in his home, that staff were kept in conditions akin to slavery and that their fundamental rights were systematically violated”. The lawsuit calls for a public retraction in addition to the financial penalty.

The underlying allegations were first reported in January by Diario.es, in collaboration with Univisión, following a three-year investigation. Two women who worked at Iglesias’s residences in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas alleged sexual assault, with one claiming she was forced into non-consensual encounters. Journalist Paloma García-Pelayo, a known associate of the singer, said at the time that Iglesias was “worried” and felt his image had “absolutely” collapsed, living the situation “as if he had been killed internationally because of his image.”

The criminal dimension of the case has already stalled. Spain’s National Court prosecutor’s office shelled the proceedings against Iglesias, citing a “lack of jurisdiction” because the alleged incidents occurred in the Caribbean. This jurisdictional barrier is a recurring challenge for European courts dealing with crimes committed in private foreign residences.

Iglesias is simultaneously pursuing a criminal complaint in a Madrid court against Diario.es editor Ignacio Escolar and several of the outlet's reporters. He accuses them of insult, slander, and violating his moral integrity by publishing “false and defamatory” statements intended to “undermine” his public image. Together, the twin legal battles against a government minister and a major news outlet illustrate the fraught intersection of public discourse and Spain’s strict honour laws.