For more than two decades, Enrique Iglesias’ music has been playing wherever we go. Every song he composes becomes an instant hit — from his love songs, like “Hero,” to his more catchy tunes, such as “Tonight I’m Lovin you.” He’s the son of a very famous singer, so many assume that this is what drove and helped Enrique become an artist. Nothing could be further from the truth — the singer actually owes his huge success to his nanny.

He was born in Spain but wasn’t raised there.

Born on May 8, 1975, in Madrid, Spain, Enrique Iglesias is one of the most internationally recognized Spanish pop singers. His father is the famous Julio Iglesias, who used to be the most commercially successful European singer in the world, and his mother is the Filipino model and socialite Isabel Preysler.

After his parents’ divorce in 1978, Enrique and his siblings, Julio and Chabeli, stayed with their mother. They first lived in Spain, later spent a year in Yugoslavia. Finally, when the singer was seven years old, the children went to live with their father in the United States, where they spent most of their childhood and attended school.

Enrique and his siblings were raised by Elvira Olivares.

His father’s busy schedule meant he couldn’t be home much with his children, so they had a nanny. Elvira Olivares was the one who took care of the boys. For the young Enrique, she became like a second mother, whom he loved and trusted completely. The future artist loved music and secretly composed his own songs as a form of self-expression, and Elvira was the only one who knew about this.

As Enrique grew older, he became more and more convinced that his family would not support him if he decided to pursue a musical career. He had a rocky relationship with his father, who was demanding and expected a lot from his children. Enrique felt that he would never be able to be up to his father’s expectations and that he would always be in his shadow. Therefore, like many other children of celebrities, he decided to carve his own path by keeping the fame of his family name aside.

His nanny never stopped supporting him.

When asked about his nanny, the singer says, “She is my second mother, the woman who rewarded me when necessary, the person with whom I shared the most time. I love her more than myself, one of the most important people in my life. The only one I could trust for a long time.”

So when he came of age, he turned to her to help him realize his dream of being an artist. She was no longer his nanny, but they had a deeper relationship than that. Enrique needed money to record some of his songs to send to record labels. Elvira, without hesitation, lent him $500 that she had saved, and, with that money, the future star was able to finance his first demo of three songs.

He didn’t speak to his dad for more than one decade.

When he sent his work to the record companies, he presented himself as Enrique Martínez. He even changed his nationality to Guatemalan so as not to raise any suspicion about his true identity. His father interpreted this attitude as arrogance and disrespect toward him.

When Julio heard his son’s first album entitled Enrique Iglesias, he got upset. He described it as disastrous and predicted it wouldn’t make any sales. Yet he was wrong. The album began to sell like hotcakes, putting Enrique at the top of all the music charts and fueling, even more, the rivalry between father and son, who spent many years without speaking to each other.

But maturity and time heal all wounds.

“I think my father thought that nothing was going to happen, that I wasn’t going to be successful. When I sold a million copies, he would say, ’You know, you’re not going to pass a million copies — that’s impossible,’ and then I would end up selling 2 million or 3 million, or 4 million. Then he’d say, ’Oh, yeah, you sold that many copies, but you’re never going to get a Grammy.’”

Interestingly, the young Iglesias won the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance in 1996 — the same award that had been given to his father in 1987. Enrique was able to achieve success and exceed all of his father’s expectations. He ended up proving his worth and, despite everything, father and son managed to iron out the differences and heal their relationship. And not only that, Enrique became the great pride of his father, who has confessed to eagerly listening to his son’s music.

In his private life, he also did things in his own way.

Being a member of the Iglesias-Preysler family was not easy. Enrique suffered a lot from the estrangement of his family. That’s why, when he formed his own family with the former tennis player Anna Kournikova, he decided to find a way to avoid repeating the same story. He takes an active part in parenthood, and, in spite of his busy schedule, he spends as much time as possible with his little ones and Anna, with whom he has one of the most stable and long-lasting relationships in the world of show business.

He also tries to keep his children away from the media to protect their privacy, and his tours are organized in such a way that the singer does not have to spend a long time apart from his family. He makes sure that they keep in touch with their grandparents. Moreover, he is now the one who takes care of Elvira and ensures she lacks nothing, in gratitude for all those years in which she took care of him with so much patience and devotion.

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