Julio Iglesias ruled the 'biological father' of 43-year-old man in reopened paternity case

Spanish singer Julio Iglesias is the “biological father” of a 43-year-old man whose mother claimed she had a brief affair with the vocalist, a court has ruled.

Javier Sánchez Santos, who now lives in Italy, has reportedly been trying to prove that he is the son of Iglesias for 30 years.

But the Grammy-winning crooner - who was married to journalist Isabel Preysler throughout the 1970s - has consistently denied that he was ever romantically linked with Santos’s mother María Edite.

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During the trial, former ballerina Edite claimed that she and Iglesias spent one week together in Sant Feliu de Guíxols on the Costa Brava in 1975, and that Santos was born nine months later.

Judge José Miguel Bort reportedly stated that “the possibility that sexual relations took place between them is not unlikely nor preposterous," drawing attention to the “clear physical resemblance” between Santos and Iglesias.

After years of refusing to provide a DNA sample, the initial paternity case was closed in 1992. It was reopened, however, after a private investigator obtained evidence from a water bottle left on a Miami beach by Julio Iglesias Jr. while he was surfing in 2017.

Santos’s lawyer, Fernando Osuna, revealed that DNA testing indicated that his client and Iglesias Jr are brothers.

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Despite 75-year-old Iglesias not being present for the hearing in Valencia, his lawyers have allegedly said that he is likely to appeal the Bort’s verdict.

Iglesias has eight other children; two sons - including pop star Enrique Iglesias - and a daughter with Preysler, as well as three sons and two daughters with his current partner Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger.