Julio Iglesias: Spanish court rules singer is father of 43-year-old man

Entertainment Euronews

A Spanish court ruled on Wednesday that Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias is the father of a 43-year-old man, ending a decades-old paternity dispute.

Javier Sanchez-Santos was born in 1976 to Portuguese dancer Maria Edite Santos. The ruling from a court in Valencia effectively makes him Iglesias’ ninth child.
However, the tribunal indicated on Twitter that the ruling is not final and can be appealed.

Iglesias, who became the world’s best-selling Latin artist after his burgeoning football career was curtailed by a car accident in 1963, has repeatedly refused to take a DNA test since the case was first brought to the justice system in the early 1990s.

The legal team for Iglesias, 75, has argued that the latest trial shouldn’t even have taken place as the “matter has been settled by the courts for years” and that “judgements have been issued in all judicial instances,” they said in a statement.

A 1992 court ruled in Javier Sanchez-Santo’s favour but it was overturned in an appeals’ court. The country’s Supreme Court sided with Iglesias in 1999.

The judge in Valencia said his ruling was based on the “significant” physical resemblance between the two men and the testimony from Maria Edite Santos.

https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/10/julio-iglesias-spanish-court-rules-singer-is-father-of-43-year-old-man