The worst portrait of Julio Iglesias was painted by himself.

Barcelona"The thing is, I'm very shy and sometimes it seems like I treat women badly. I don't mean to be rude, but sometimes I'm abrupt. It's nothing serious. Perhaps that old Spanish saying is ingrained in me: 'A woman should be treated like a whore, and a whore like a lady,'" Julio Iglesias wrote in Between heaven and hellThe autobiography, published by Planeta in 1981, when the singer was 37 and enjoying great success in the United States.

In the same book, written with the help of journalist Tico Medina, he spoke of a red notebook with "more than four hundred women's names." "The red notebook is the first thing that travels with me in my leather briefcase," he said, adding that he kept a copy "lovingly, in some corner of the house, like a precious jewel, or in a Swiss bank." "I need women who have, I would say, a striking aesthetic. A woman with personality, who has her things well arranged, both inside and out, what is seen and what is not," he also said in 1981. 45 years later, the description resonates with a sinister echo. in the statements of the two women who have accused him of harassment, sexual assault and workplace abuse

It must be said that the prose of the autobiography is peculiar, with commas distributed with a morbid generosity ("Spain fills my mouth, and my gallbladder, and my whole life") and a metaphorical arsenal somewhere between mawkishness and the opening scene of a pornographic film ("All these women's names are nothing more than the hot tips of this volcano that seems to be my heart. I shouldn't say iceberg tips, far from it, because here there is no sky, there is heat")

In a chapter titled Let's talk about loveJulio Iglesias, in commas, admits: "My body needs love, making love, physically, every day, every night. Of course, I must always do it in an imaginative, respectful, yet classic, and somewhat revolutionary way. But biologically correct." Did no editor think that perhaps the last sentence, in particular, deserved a second look? Hans Laguna, in the magnificent essay Hey! Julio Iglesias and the conquest of America (Against, 2022)He refers to it: "I've tried, but I'm unable to visualize what he means." Hans Laguna, a true surfer of curiosity with a critical spirit, did exhaustive research to explain the mechanisms of pop culture, marketing, and the legend-making that permeate the life and work of the singer of May life be the sameHe applied a critical perspective and found a perhaps unexpected ally: the singer himself, because the worst portrait of Julio Iglesias was painted by himself in his autobiography and in the hundreds of interviews and public appearances, often with the help of a tabloid press that, in the late seventies and early eighties, was fundamental to his rise to worldwide success. It was a self-portrait celebrated by banal nationalism and venal machismo. The self-portrait of a man who turns sexual need into a commandment. Nothing seemingly criminal. Everything seemingly within the bounds of consent. Everything celebrated as fulfilled desires and knockout victories are celebrated.

The "serial copulator"

"Julio was the one who contributed most to the image of a serial copulator," writes Hans Laguna, who, "according to the available information," believes that the singer exhibited "many of the characteristics associated with hypersexual disorder or sex addiction, such as impulsivity, the incessant search for novelty, the constant need for diverse [but biologically correct] sexual practices, emotional coldness, and chronic dissatisfaction." As an example, Julio Iglesias himself recalled that "he couldn't go on stage if he hadn't made love first," and that "while on stage he wanted to finish the concert immediately" because he knew he had a woman waiting for him in his hotel room. He added: "My only interest when I got on a plane was to seduce the flight attendant so I could have sex with her in the bathroom." Finally, when he was 70, he admitted that he had been a sex addict, particularly between 1973 and 1984.

Hans Laguna also reports on the origin of the headline about "the 3,000-woman love record." It emerged in the early 1980s, when journalist Jane Moore, from the British newspaper The SunShe asked him how many women he had slept with. Julio Iglesias didn't know what to answer. The journalist asked him if it was "300." The singer said more. And when she suggested "3,000," the singer smiled. National Enquire The American picked up on the figure and the legend spread far and wide. "Don't you dare contradict him," Iglesias told manager Alfredo Fraile.

All of this amplified his status as a "serial copulator" and (according to Fraile) "Latin lover "Lady-eater," which, beyond the number, was indeed based on real events. Fraile said that the house in Indian Creek "looked like the UN" because of the "constant flow of beautiful women" from all over the world. And when Julio Iglesias went to New York, he had access to the models who worked for John Casablancas at the Elite agency.

Ignacio Peyró, in the book The Spaniard who captivated the world. A life story of Julio Iglesias (Libros del Asteroide, 2025), writes: "The girls stayed at the Indian Creek house for a few days until the singer's appetites demanded a replenishment of stock." Peyró, always with a tone close to the roguish hagiography that so excites some, also says about the singer: "There is something in his decline that coincides with our own, and this book aims to be a tribute to that lightness, that joy, that innocence."

At this point, Hans Laguna poses a pertinent question: "Iglesias's outrageous sexual history forces us to ask to what extent the relationships were always consensual." In the autobiography, the singer presents himself as someone "absolutely sensitive to sex" and "terribly erotic," but he doesn't see himself as a Don Juan, whom he considers a ridiculous character. "I don't want women to use them." He also points out that he has never paid for a woman: "I don't think I've ever put a single penny in a woman's hand. I don't want to pay for love with any kind of money. What I do know is that I want to be sitting at a table with many beautiful women, that's true, but I never have a favorite." It's worth emphasizing the book's unique writing style. Between heaven and hell and in the way Iglesias connects concepts in a couple of sentences.

Hans Laguna wrote in 2022 that Julio Iglesias had never received any accusations related to sexual behavior, except for a paternity suit. Perhaps, says the book's author Hey!because, "despite his privileged status as a star, he has not held positions that would allow him to take advantage of his position of power, as happened with his friend Plácido Domingo, who committed sexual abuse while director of the Los Angeles Opera". In The Spaniard who charmed the world (which the publisher will revise in a new edition), Ignacio Peyró wrote in a 2025 footnote that Julio Iglesias had not been accused of "conduct that is a frequent cause, not just for cancellation, but directly for criminal charges: for example, abusing his position to obtain sexual favors, etc." The complaint now filed does fall within a context of a position of power: that of someone who hires domestic workers and forces them to sexually satisfy him.

What is the difference between the Julio Iglesias of the red notebook and sex with flight attendants in the late seventies and the Julio Iglesias who, in 2020 and at 79 years old, allegedly forced a domestic worker to lick his anus and penis all night to appease him? "Of my life, only my bed and my friends, and I, know. My few friends. Fewer every day," Julio Iglesias wrote in 1981. It seems the bed has begun to speak.