'DNA proof' for Julio Iglesias love child - lawyer

Julio Iglesias has won several top music awards for his romantic ballads

DNA test results make it almost certain that veteran crooner Julio Iglesias is the father of a 40-year-old Spanish man, a lawyer acting for the man says.

There is a 99.99% DNA match, the Seville lawyer for Javier Sánchez said. The DNA was obtained legally from some discarded items in Miami, he added.

Mr Sánchez's mother Maria Edite Santos, a Portuguese dancer, reportedly had an affair with the famous singer. Iglesias has not commented on the latest claim.

The singer, 73, has eight children.

They include pop star Enrique Iglesias.

Mr Sánchez - a resident of Valencia - has been trying for nearly 30 years to prove that Iglesias is his father, Spanish media report. If confirmed, he would be the award-winning singer's ninth child.

Three were born to Isabel Preysler, the singer's ex-partner, and five to his current partner Miranda Rijnsburger.

In 1992 a court ruled in favour of Mr Sánchez, declaring that Iglesias was his father. But Iglesias appealed and got the ruling quashed. The singer had refused to undergo a paternity test.

A clause in the Spanish constitution gives people the right to pursue such paternity suits.

The office of lawyer Fernando Osuna specialises in such cases, Spanish media report. In 2016 they proved that bullfighter Manuel Díaz was the son of a celebrated bullfighter of the 1960s, Manuel Benítez, nicknamed "El Cordobés".