[9] The accident smashed his lower spine and left his legs permanently weakened and requiring therapy for several years.

While he was in hospital after the accident, a nurse named Eladio Magdaleno gave him a guitar so that he could recover the dexterity of his hands.

Notable albums from this decade are A flor de piel (1974, with the European hit "Manuela"), El amor (1975), and Soy (1973).

In 1979, he moved to Miami, in the United States, signed a deal with CBS International, and started singing in different languages such as French, Italian, Portuguese, and German.

Two years later, he released the album De niña a mujer in five languages, which he dedicated to his daughter Chabeli, who appeared on the cover with him.

From it came the first English-language hit of his career, a cover of "Begin the Beguine" which became number 1 in the United Kingdom; he also released a collection, Julio (1983).

[16] He also covered "The Air That I Breathe," written by Albert Hammond and popularized by The Hollies, on this album; Iglesias's version featured vocals from The Beach Boys.

Iglesias made a cameo appearance as himself on The Golden Girls as Sophia Petrillo's date on St. Valentine's Day 1989.

In December 2004, his Dutch girlfriend Miranda Rijnsburger and Iglesias himself recorded a duet of the Christmas song "Silent Night".

The song was released online through the singer's official website and a CD was included on their Christmas card as a holiday gift from the Iglesias family to their friends and fans around the world.

Iglesias also made investments in the Dominican Republic's eastern town of Punta Cana, a major tourist destination, where he took to spending most of the year.

The album featured his interpretations of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", the George Michael selection "Careless Whisper", and Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting".

Romantic Classics was Iglesias's highest debut on the Billboard charts, entering at number 31 in the United States, 21 in Canada, 10 in Australia, and top spots across Europe and Asia.

In the United States, for example, he appeared on Dancing With The Stars, where he sang his version of "I Want To Know What Love Is", Good Morning America, The View, Fox and Friends and Martha Stewart.

[21] Iglesias's performance of the song "La Mer" ("The Sea") is featured in the soundtrack of the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

being of his own authorship and composition, on 23 April 2013, he was inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame, alongside Armando Manzanero and José Feliciano.

The mansion on the private Indian Creek Island, whose interior design was made by Virginia Sipl, was placed on the market in 2006 for a quoted $28 million, making it one of the "Ten Most Expensive Homes in the South" in 2006 according to Forbes magazine.

[27] After his divorce, Iglesias lived with Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger, 22 years his junior, whom he married on 26 August 2010 in a small church in Marbella, Spain.

[32] In 2019, a court in Valencia ruled that Iglesias is the father of Javier Sánchez, son of Portuguese former dancer Maria Edite Santos.

Sánchez had been pursuing his paternity suit in court since 1992, arguing that he was conceived when his mother allegedly had an affair with Iglesias in the Catalonia region in July 1975.

Delivering the verdict, Judge Bort said his decision was reached in part because of the "resemblance between the two men" and on the basis of Edite's testimony.