The way kitchen and cleaning jobs at Julio Iglesias’s mansion in Punta Cana are advertised stands out for its informality: postings on Instagram accounts that operate briefly and then disappear, with names such as “job RD” or “employment RD.”
An ad on a similar account led Carolina (a pseudonym), another former employee interviewed by elDiario.es, to the singer. The post read, “Villa in Punta Cana seeks domestic worker.” Below, the listed “requirements” were: “25 to 35 years old, live-in position, benefits: 25,000 pesos.”
The informality of this hiring process is further illustrated by a published screenshot showing the full text of the request sent to the Instagram account responsible for posting vacancies: “Good afternoon, I have found two girls but I need more. Could you please post this vacancy?”
The phone number listed in the posting matches that of the household manager at Julio Iglesias’s residence in the Dominican Republic. Journalists from elDiario.es and Univision Noticias attempted to contact the household manager using that number but received no response.
Two sources involved in the investigation confirmed that this was the phone number they regularly used to communicate with her.
This employee of Julio Iglesias did not respond to questions sent by elDiario.es and Univision Noticias.
After the publication of the first article in this series, she posted on social media, accompanied by a recent photograph with Iglesias, stating that she has worked for him for 14 years. In the post, she addressed the singer directly, writing: “What they are saying about you is an immense lie and an act of cruelty.”
She also described him as “an upright, respectful, caring, proper, disciplined, and profoundly humane man.”
In 2021, when Carolina—a Dominican woman now 30—was looking for work, she turned to Instagram.
“I sent her my résumé, and she told me to send a full-body photo,” Carolina told elDiario.es. “I sent it, and the next day she told me I qualified for the job and that I had to start on Monday.”
Carolina said she had no prior experience working in similar villas; her only previous job had been as a domestic worker in a private home. Regarding the photograph, she explained that it was only after a few days working at the house that she understood why a full-body image had been required.
“I realized that he likes the people around him to be in good physical shape,” she said. “I even heard him say that some girls who started working at his villa gained weight, and he fired them.”
Carolina said she saw the household manager show photos to Julio Iglesias, who then decided “who was in and who was out.”
“I realized this was the process because they did it with all the girls,” she said.
Journalists from elDiario.es and Univision Noticias repeatedly attempted to contact Julio Iglesias and his lawyer through various channels, but received no response to questions sent by email, text message, or letters delivered to his residences.
In a public statement issued after the publication of this reporting, the singer denied “having abused, coerced, or disrespected any woman.”
Laura (a pseudonym), a physical therapist interviewed by elDiario.es and Univision Noticias who worked for Julio Iglesias, said she did not witness this specific scene but described a very similar one: “They were looking for staff, and he didn’t care about résumés or education,” she said. “He would simply look at a photo and say, ‘I like this one.’”
Laura said she asked him why. According to her account, he replied: “Because she looks clean; Dominicans are slobs.”
“It caught my attention because the girls were sending photos with low-cut tops and other suggestive things,” she added.
Laura said she witnessed another moment while Iglesias was reviewing the résumé of what she described as “a good-looking girl.” Laura noticed that the woman was a lawyer and pointed this out to him.
“I said, ‘Look, Julio, this girl seems like she’d be a hard worker, because if she’s applying for a job as a housekeeper, it means she’s in need,’” Laura recalled.
According to her account, Iglesias replied, “No, not this one.”
Like Carolina, Rebeca (a pseudonym), another former employee interviewed by elDiario.es and Univision Noticias, said she found a job at Julio Iglesias’s residence through an advertisement on Instagram.
She recalled that the post described the position as “live-in,” meaning it included accommodation and meals, and offered a salary of 25,000 Dominican pesos—about 350 euros at the exchange rate at the time, roughly three times the minimum wage for domestic work.
“Five photos of yourself”
It was 2021, still during the pandemic, and Rebeca decided to put her studies in Santo Domingo on hold to help support her family. When she sent a WhatsApp message to the phone number listed in the ad, she was asked about her age, place of birth, whether she had children, and her work experience. She was also asked to provide a résumé and a letter of recommendation.
Rebeca did not meet several of the stated requirements: she did not have a letter of recommendation, her experience in domestic work was limited, and the position was advertised for women between 25 and 35 years old. She was 22.
There was another request on the list: “Can you send me five normal photos of yourself that are more formal?” Rebeca said she sent images in which she appeared “formal,” including one taken at the school she attended.
Rebeca sent the photos and added a clarification about her age. “I know the age requirement is 25 and up, but I’m very responsible when it comes to work,” she wrote in the chat.
“We were in the middle of the pandemic and I needed the job. I come from a very poor family and I needed to make ends meet,” she says.
Her lack of experience didn't matter: after a phone call the next day, she was hired immediately.
“I had never left home before, and I was a little naive. I was scared, I won't deny it. I didn't know where I was going; I didn't know if it was real,” Rebeca recalls.
During their first conversation, the woman who interviewed her issued a warning: “Look, you’re going to be working with the most important person in the Dominican Republic—more important than the president.”
Rebeca googled Julio Iglesias. She knew his son, but was less familiar with the father.
All sources consulted within Julio Iglesias’s household confirmed that this recruitment process for domestic workers was recurring and commonplace. The woman in charge of personnel selection was the same person who later issued instructions on how the work was to be carried out—both verbally and in writing—either directly to employees via WhatsApp or through a group chat shared with current staff.
elDiario.es verified these instructions through screenshots of the messages.
According to Rebeca’s testimony, reported by elDiario.es and Univision Noticias, this same manager was allegedly involved in sexual encounters with Julio Iglesias.
A specific profile: uneducated women of African descent
Laura said that, based on what she observed, Julio Iglesias did not hire “educated and cultured people.”
“They were girls he knew had financial difficulties and who, for the most part, didn’t have much education,” she said.
She added that there were two “essential” questions in the hiring process: whether they were single and whether they had children.
Laura said Julio Iglesias also showed preferences regarding ethnic background.
“He always looked for dark-skinned women, women of African descent,” she said. “He would ask about their ancestry—whether they were purely Dominican, of mixed European and African heritage, or Haitian.”
Within the rigid workplace hierarchy at the house in Punta Cana, with Julio Iglesias at the top, domestic workers occupied the lowest rung and were overwhelmingly Dominican.
Fact-checking and editing: María Ramírez, Natalia Chientaroli Raquel Ejerique, Federica Narancio and Esther Poveda.
Translation: Jessica Weiss
Read the Spanish version here
You can read more about our investigation here.