This Wednesday, October 22, Isabel Preysler presented to the world her long-awaited memoir My True Story. The very act of naming it thus is a firm declaration of intent that she has made a point of stressing again and again: “So many false things have been said about me over the years, without my bothering to deny them, that I have decided to do so now.” Said and done and written and published and commented on, and now we have a topic of conversation for some time.
Isabel pours the 336 pages of the book with her entire life: from her childhood in the Philippines to her coronation as queen of hearts, and everything that lies in between, including her great loves, her feuds and her descendants. “They are the most important thing in my life” alongside my grandchildren. From the moment I wake up until I go to bed I cannot stop thinking about them,” she acknowledges in a book in which Preysler recalls that Julio Iglesias did not treat his son Enrique well.
To understand the context, we have to travel back to 1978. That year Spain approved its new Constitution, Grease was released, and Pope John Paul I died (that great enigma that will be solved one day), Isabel Preysler and Julio Iglesias issued a statement, through the magazine ¡Hola!, informing the world of their decision to separate. One July morning (the month), Alfredo Fraile, Julio’s manager at the time, appeared at the magazine’s editorial offices to announce the couple’s breakup.
«Facing possible speculation or sensational news that might originate from our personal situation, we jointly felt obliged to explain, once and for all, the determination to which we have freely arrived to separate legally», read the note published on July 22, 1978.
Now, almost 50 years later, Isabel recalls the singer’s breakup in her memoirs. After seven years living together and three children (Chábeli, Julio José and Enrique) the arrangement could not go on: «In the end, our married life consisted of the postcards from the various countries Julio visited on his tours and the phone calls, because his absences were becoming longer and his musical successes increasingly important. Our conversation ceased to be as fluid and carefree as at the beginning and, almost without realizing it, I went from sharing my life with a caring man to having to get used to doing without his company», Isabel explains in My True Story.
Isabel Preysler’s separation from her children
After the breakup with Julio Iglesias, Isabel Preysler had to face another separation even more complex, namely that from her children. This is how she recounts it in one of the chapters of her biography, where she remembers the moment when the three children she had with the singer left their lives in Spain to head for the United States, where Julio Iglesias lived at the time.
«It was the saddest day I remember», she explains in the book. «The day I left them at Barajas airport, as children, to begin a new life in Miami, far from me. When your children’s safety is at risk, you make very difficult decisions, even though your heart breaks into a thousand pieces».
Julio Iglesias and Isabel Preysler, on their wedding day.
With a Broken Heart, as Alejandro Sanz would sing, Isabel could not imagine then that the separation would be much longer than she had imagined. «I had to accept that that trip would last a long time… but I never believed it would be forever», she writes in My True Story. The distance not only took its toll on the socialite, it also affected her children, especially Enrique, to whom she devotes a leading role in her account. «He was my baby for many years».
The origin of the bad blood between Julio and Enrique Iglesias
The youngest developed his interest in music from a young age, and as he himself has recounted on more than one occasion, it was a passion that he developed in secret. In fact, it was Enrique’s teacher who loaned the singer the money to record something he had been composing for years. «Not even to me did he tell me anything until his first demo was accepted», Isabel explains in her memoirs.
When the mother discovered that the youngest son wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps in the world of singing (over time he would surpass him in global fame), Isabel Preysler tried to persuade him of the difficulties of that path: «I could not help worrying about his future. I asked him not to abandon his studies, to finish his career and then devote himself entirely.»
If the mother’s reaction fluctuated between initial surprise, concern for an uncertain future and later support, the father’s reaction was much worse. Enrique had the enemy at home, as Isabel has recalled in her memoirs. Each reacted differently. And I am forced to say, with great regret, that Julio at that moment and later, did not behave toward Enrique as a father should have done with his son, especially considering that the two shared the same profession.
Julio Iglesias, with his son Enrique.
The singer’s reaction marked a before and after in the relationship with his son, something that was already known, but which Isabel has laid bare. She herself was deeply disappointed by her ex’s stance. «Julio’s attitude hurt Enrique deeply, and it turned out to be, for me, a source of disappointments and sadness», she notes.
Enrique’s version of the distancing
When the youngest of the family decided to throw himself into the world of music, the news hit the father’s house like a bomb. Enrique himself recounted it years later in the documentary Papá cumple 80. «We had a fight on the phone. He said to me, ‘why are you doing this’, ‘you are crazy’, ‘why did you do this without telling me’, ‘I am the one who knows about this’, ‘you won’t achieve anything without me’. I argued with him, packed my bags and left home», he explained.
The father’s competitiveness has also been depicted by his elder son, Julio José («My father is very proud of us, but he is a great competitor and always wants to win») and Enrique’s own desire to win that battle: «I have always wanted to sell more records than my father, I have always wanted to be better than my father, to be a better artist than my father…», he said.
The tension between father and son, both singers of two different generations and two different musical styles, reached its culmination when both were nominated in the same year for Best Latin Singer, which Julio ultimately won: «Above all I want to tell my son that, as long as he keeps taking the stage, I will continue competing with him», he said.
