Julio Iglesias sues Spain’s vice president for €50,000 after she refuses to retract abuse claims

The Spanish singer has lodged a civil claim in the Supreme Court seeking damages, a public retraction and legal costs over comments Yolanda Díaz made after two former employees accused him of sexual and labour-related offences. No court has yet ruled on his claim.

€50,000 claim follows a refusal to withdraw the remarks

Julio Iglesias has escalated his dispute with Spain’s second vice president and Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, by filing a civil lawsuit in the country’s Supreme Court on July 21. The singer is seeking €50,000 for alleged moral damage. His claim also asks Díaz to acknowledge that her statements unlawfully interfered with his right to honour, retract them publicly and pay the costs of the proceedings.

At this stage, the €50,000 is an amount requested by Iglesias, not compensation ordered by a court. The Supreme Court has not issued a ruling on whether Díaz’s words were unlawful, and the lawsuit follows an unsuccessful attempt to settle the dispute. Representatives for Iglesias and Díaz attended a conciliation hearing in May, but the vice president did not accept that her comments had damaged his reputation and declined to withdraw them.

The vice president’s words from January sit at the centre of the case

The row began after two former employees made serious allegations about their time working at Iglesias’ Caribbean properties. On January 13, Díaz responded on Bluesky, describing their accounts as “chilling testimonies” and writing: “Sexual abuse and a situation of slavery with a power structure based on permanent aggression.” She thanked the women and the journalists who published the investigation. The following day, during an interview on Spanish public broadcaster RTVE, Díaz also discussed the accusations and the possibility of withdrawing Iglesias’ Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts.

Iglesias’ lawyers argue that a senior public official presented disputed allegations as established facts and created a presumption of guilt. The singer has denied abusing, coercing or disrespecting any woman. When he began conciliation proceedings in February, Díaz responded that she would continue defending working women when their integrity or rights were violated. “With complaints and without complaints, women are no longer silent,” she wrote.

Spanish prosecutors closed the earlier complaint on jurisdiction

The two women, represented by Women’s Link Worldwide, submitted a complaint to Spain’s National Court prosecutor on January 5. They alleged conduct in 2021 at properties in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas that could amount to sexual offences, human trafficking for forced labour, physical harm and breaches of workers’ rights.

Prosecutors closed their preliminary investigation on January 23 after concluding that Spanish courts lacked jurisdiction. They said the alleged events occurred entirely outside Spain and found insufficient personal or territorial links to allow Spanish authorities to investigate.

That decision did not test the truth of the allegations or declare them false. It was a ruling about which country’s authorities could examine them, despite Iglesias holding Spanish nationality. The new civil claim is therefore not a trial of what allegedly happened in the Caribbean. It concerns whether Díaz’s public wording unlawfully harmed the singer’s honour and personal privacy.

The Supreme Court has not yet awarded damages

Iglesias first initiated conciliation proceedings in February, demanding acknowledgement of the alleged harm, a retraction and compensation. When the May hearing ended without agreement, his lawyers moved to the civil claim now lodged in the Supreme Court.

The case has gone directly to Spain’s highest court because Díaz has aforada status, meaning certain proceedings involving her public office are heard there rather than in an ordinary lower court.

Filing the claim does not mean it has been admitted or that Iglesias will receive €50,000. The next significant step will be the Supreme Court’s decision on whether the case proceeds and, if it does, Díaz’s formal response. Iglesias has also separately brought legal action in Madrid against several journalists involved in the original reporting. However, that is a different case with different defendants.