A Spanish court yesterday started to examine a paternity suit against Julio Iglesias brought by a man who has already lost a case against the crooner but who now claims to have DNA proof. The 75-year-old Grammy award-winner was not at the trial that is being held behind closed doors. The session was quickly adjourned as the judge wanted to "assess a procedural issue" before examining the case in depth, a spokesman for the court in the eastern city of Valencia told AFP. The case was brought by Javier Sanchez Santos, 43, the son of Portuguese former ballerina Maria Edite. "I want to believe in the justice system… I just have to wait now," Sanchez said as he left court.

His lawyer Fernando Osuna said Edite met Iglesias in Catalonia in Spain's northeast, that "they were together a week, in July 1975" and that "nine months later Javier was born." Osuna said Iglesias's defense team believes the trial should not take place as the case has already gone to court and was dismissed. But Osuna feels "a new trial" is justified as they have "DNA evidence" brought from the United States by a detective.

The detective managed to get close to the singer's son Julio Iglesias Junior while he was surfing in Miami and picked up "a bottle of water" that was used in a DNA test, the lawyer said. The test showed that Julio Iglesias Jr and Sanchez are brothers, he added. The singer has always refused to do a DNA test. Known for his romantic ballads and a prolific love life that has long been fodder for tabloid headlines, Iglesias has sold over 300 million albums in his decades-long career. He has been married twice, to Spanish socialite Isabel Preysler with whom he had three children, and to Miranda Rijnsburger, his current wife with whom he has five others. He has often presented himself as an unapologetic flirt with "an obsession for sex." "Don't ask me how many brothers I have, I don't even know myself," his son Julio Jr said in 2018 on television.-AFP