Anna KournikovaCelebrity couplesLove storyEnrique Iglesias
We talk about how the relationship between the Spanish singer and the Russian tennis player began
Personal life of Anna Kournikova before Enrique Iglesias
Anna Kournikova, who made a modeling career in parallel with her tennis career, could not help but attract thousands of men from all over the world. So, in 2002, she took first place in the ranking of the sexiest girls on the planet according to FHM - a strong argument for every second star man trying to start a relationship with her. And she preferred courageous hockey players: both Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure were in relationships with the girl. Moreover, one of them became the reason for the separation from the second. In 1999, the British tabloid The Sun reported that Kournikova planned to marry Fedorov - they were engaged, Anna wore an engagement ring during the Wimbledon tournament.
Engagement ring given to Anna
In 2001, the couple got married, but Pavel Bure intervened in their relationship. Neither Anna nor her relatives like to talk about this stage of life: in one of the interviews, her father tried to refute the wedding between her daughter and Fedorov. Sergei himself gave an interview in 2003 in which he confirmed that they were married, but he wanted to forget about it as soon as possible.
Anna Kournikova and Sergei Fedorov
The reason is that Anna, as the media wrote, cheated on him with Pavel Bure. “I still don’t know whether there was something between them or not. I read about this in one of the magazines and immediately asked Anna for an explanation. She said that this was all untrue, and I had no reason not to believe her,” admitted Sergei. But journalists don’t believe him: in the wake of rumors about Anna’s affair with Pavel Bure, photographs appeared that leave no doubt that the communication between them was not at all friendly.
Anna Kournikova and Pavel Bure
Way to success
The life journey of Enrique Miguel Iglesias began on May 8, 1975 in Madrid. He became the third child of Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and Filipino journalist Isabel Preysler. This union also produced his older sister and brother, Maria Isabel and Julio Jose. The parents of the future star divorced when their youngest son was only 3 years old. The children remained to live with their mother in Spain. However, in 1985, due to threats from Basque terrorists, Isabel Preysler sent her heirs to Miami to live with her father.
Julio Iglesias with older children
Enrique studied at a prestigious private school, and then, at the insistence of his father, entered the local university to study business. However, his main hobby since childhood was music. Iglesias secretly wrote poetry, and as an adult, he made several demo recordings of his songs and sent them to music studios under the pseudonym Enrique Martinez. Having signed a contract with a small Mexican label, the aspiring singer dropped out of university and plunged headlong into creativity. Upon learning the truth, his father was furious. As Enrique recalled, Julio Iglesias was used to controlling everything, so he couldn’t handle the fact that his son saw his life path differently and was ready to achieve fame on his own.
Fortunately, the success of the debut single and album finally convinced the young singer of the correctness of his chosen profession. The first record even brought Enrique a Grammy Award in the Best Latin Album category. Since then, Iglesias has released 9 more albums, selling a total of more than 170 million copies. His compositions have reached number one on the Billboard charts 150 times in different countries.
With Jennifer Love Hewitt
Of course, with the growth of popularity, a line of fans lined up for the young, attractive and talented singer. But Iglesias did his own thing in this case too. Unlike his loving father and paternal grandfather, who married more than once and gave birth to many children, Enrique approached creating a family thoroughly.
At the beginning of his career, only one high-profile romance of his is known - with actress Jennifer Love Hewitt. They met in the summer of 2000 at the Teen Choice Award ceremony. The couple were together for about a year and after breaking up managed to maintain friendly relations. Jennifer even agreed to star in Iglesias' video for the song Hero when they were no longer together.
How Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias met
In 2001, Enrique Iglesias was preparing to release the album “Escape,” which included a song with the same name. The singer considered it the most important thing in his career - it was assumed that he would help him finally deal with being in the shadow of his famous father. His casting director suggested making a music video for the “Escape” video, calling a girl from some rating of “the hottest sex symbols” for the main role. She turned out to be Anna Kournikova, who was just called the “sexual symbol of the sports industry.” The further history of their acquaintance varies.
Enrique himself says that he was delighted to work on the same set with Kournikova. “I am sure that a significant number of people are obliged to meet her. I'm one of them. She's sweet and an incredible tennis player. Besides, I’m sure that she will be great on screen... You don’t have to be a professional actor to convincingly play love with Anna,” he said in an interview. The version of Anna and insiders from the filming is significantly different: the tennis player admits that before the camera turned on, Enrique discovered a cold on her lip and said that under no circumstances did he want to kiss “this pimply little thing.” The makeup artist needed to use thick foundation, concealer and all his efforts to disguise the imperfections. Whatever happened next, within a month the press was claiming that they were dating - although the video had not even been released at that time.
Tennis star
Still from the video for the song Escape
In November 2001, Enrique released his third studio album, Escape. It was decided to shoot a video for the song of the same name, and a tennis player with Russian roots, Anna Kournikova, was invited to play the role of the singer’s on-screen girlfriend. The charming blonde was born in Moscow on June 7, 1981. She began playing tennis in the USSR, and at the age of 10 she moved to Florida to study at the famous Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy.
Kournikova achieved her first victories at junior competitions, winning the World and European Championships in 1996. At the age of 15, Anna made her debut at Grand Slam tournaments. The heyday of her career occurred in 1998-2000. True, the tennis player was never able to win any title in singles, but in doubles performances with Martina Hingis they became winners of the Australian Open and the annual WTA final tournament several times. At the peak of her career, Kournikova ranked 8th in the ranking of the strongest tennis players in the world.
Unfortunately, Anna left the sport early. Her further success was hampered by numerous injuries, including a herniated disc and the consequences of a broken leg. At the height of her career, the blonde beauty Kournikova was a popular media personality. Glossy magazines wrote about her, advertisers vied with each other to offer contracts, and the girl’s name in 2001 was recognized as one of the most frequent queries in the Google search engine.
It is not surprising that it was Kournikova who Iglesias wanted to see in his video. Based on the plot of the music video, a romantic scene with a kiss was invented for the main characters. This is where the real love story between the singer and the tennis player began. Unfortunately, over the years of their life together, Anna and Enrique created for themselves the image of one of the most closed couples in show business. At the very beginning of the relationship, they occasionally appeared together in public, but over time they stopped this practice. In addition, lovers avoid questions about their marital status. The press has reported several times about the secret wedding of celebrities, but they continue to remain silent or laugh off questions about marriage, although Anna has appeared in public more than once with a ring encrusted with an impressive diamond.
Trying to maintain the privacy of their personal lives, Kournikova and Iglesias settled in a luxurious estate in Miami Beach, located on the territory of a private coastal village. The house at the disposal of the two stars has a tennis court, a huge swimming pool and a private dock, from where lovers regularly go on boat trips. Random photographs of stars taken by paparazzi for many years served as the main evidence that the couple was still together. And by 2014, Julio Iglesias had not met his son’s longtime girlfriend. But in absentia, he approved of Enrique’s choice, calling his life partner “delightful.”
The first appearance of Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova
Until August 2002, the couple did not advertise their relationship in any way. Then they appeared together on the red carpet of the MTV Video Music Awards, since Iglesias was one of the nominees. Here the details of their acquaintance were finally clarified: the director of the video, Dave Meyers, admitted that he persuaded Anna to kiss on camera, although she demanded that a refusal to do so be included in her contract.
Refusal of a kiss as a reason for an affair
Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias in the video for "Escape". / Photo: www.huffingtonpost.com
They met in 2001, when Anna Kournikova, a famous Russian tennis player, was invited to star in Enrique Iglesias’s “Escape” video. By that time, the charming athlete had more than once been included in the list of the most beautiful girls on the planet, and the attention of the performer’s agents to her was quite natural.
In the video, she was supposed to play the role of Enrique’s beloved, but he suddenly demanded that the kiss scene be removed from the script. The reason turned out to be very banal: a cold on the upper lip of a tennis player, noticed by the singer. 20-year-old Anna was very upset and, it seems, even burst into tears. The most important thing: no matter how much she peered into her own reflection, she could not find even a hint of a rash!
Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias. / Photo: www.brigitte.de
As a result, they still kissed in the video, and so passionately that the audience did not have even a shadow of doubt: the Spanish singer and the Russian tennis player are clearly not indifferent to each other. However, members of the film crew noted that the mutual sympathy that arose between Enrique and Anna was visible already during the work on the video.
Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias. / Photo: www.mtdata.ru
The performer himself admitted: the tennis player made an indelible impression on him. She turned out to be not only beautiful, but also talented and smart, and he didn’t have to be an actor at all for the passionate kissing scene to look natural. The degeneration of the business relationship between the two celebrities into a fast-paced romance was also quite logical.
They first appeared together at the MTV Video Music Awards, and since then the relationship between Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias has become a constant topic of discussion.
Engagement and separations
In the summer of 2004, Anna Kournikova entered the World Team Tennis tournament with an engagement ring decorated with a massive stone. Everyone started talking about the lovers' engagement and the upcoming secret wedding. However, a few months later, an interview with one of the insiders appeared in the foreign press, claiming that Kournikova and Iglesias were not yet thinking about marriage. “All I can say is: in my opinion, Anna will be an excellent mother, regardless of whether we are together or not,” Enrique would tell reporters a couple of years later, leaving fans to wonder if he had broken up with his significant other.
In 2007, he shocked fans with the phrase that he and Anna were divorced and now he still values loneliness. The musician’s agent hastened to report that Enrique was just joking, but the celebrity to this day does not hide the fact that they had several crises and even breakups in their relationship. Anna did not remain in debt: in 2008 she said that she never plans to get married and is glad about it.
Enrique Iglesias now
In 2021, Enrique played himself in the Lays Stags commercial. The musician admitted that he would gladly take part in the filming if he had more free time from concerts and recording new songs.
In February 2021, Iglesias presented a new song, “Subeme La Radio.”
In June 2021, a joint tour with Pitbull began, during which Enrique visited more than 20 American cities in different states.
In January 2021, Enrique presented a new single, “El Baño,” recorded with Bad Bunny. The composition was released immediately with a video, one of the directors of which was Iglesias himself. The second director was Maxim Bohichik. In May, the singer released the song “Move to Miami” in collaboration with Pitbull. On his Instagram profile, Enrique thanked fans for their support and kind words about the new song.
And the main news of 2020 was the birth of the idol’s third child. In February, Anna Kournikova became a mother again. The singer's brother shared the good news.
Wedding of Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova
Despite the fact that Enrique often called Anna his wife (especially during concerts in Russia), she officially changed her last name on Instagram only in October last year. This gave fans reason to think that Kournikova and Iglesias were finally married!
