Ricky Martin filed a lawsuit against his nephew who claimed he had a sexual relationship with the singer and was subsequently persecuted by him.
Lawyers for the Puerto Rican singer said Dennis Martin’s request, which he has since retracted, cost him millions of dollars in lost income.
In the lawsuit, filed with the US Court of First Instance, the singer accuses his nephew of extortion, willful persecution, abuse of the law and damages resulting from false accusations.
He claims that 50-year-old Ricky Martin was “persecuted, besieged, harassed, persecuted and extorted” by his “troubled” grandson for economic reasons.
The lawsuit also argues that if the grandson gets no financial advantage, he will continue to “murder the artist’s reputation and integrity.”
In July Dennis Martin withdrew a complaint of domestic violence in which he claimed to fear for his safety because Martin refused to accept his decision to end a romantic relationship and kept calling him and wandered out of the house.
The allegations described as “nothing further from the truth” cost Ricky Martin at least $ 10 million in lost revenue due to canceled contracts and projects, as well as $ 20 million in damage to his reputation, according to the lawsuit.
He accuses his nephew, 21, of sending up to 10 messages a day to Martin between October 2021 and January 2022, most of them “meaningless diatribes without a particular purpose” – and of having posted the private number of the singer, of which he was forced to change accordingly.
According to the lawsuit, several months went by without his grandson sending a message until he got a restraining order against Martin in July.
Martin had denied the man’s allegations against him, saying they were “completely false”.
After the restraining order against Martin was lifted by a Puerto Rico court earlier this summer and the case was dismissed, the singer tweeted “truth prevails.”
In a video shared with the media by his press officer, the singer of Livin ‘la Vida Loca called the allegations “painful” and “devastating”.
“To the person who said this nonsense, I wish him the best and I wish he found help so that he can start a new life full of love, truth and joy, and it doesn’t hurt anyone else,” she said.
“Now, my priority is to heal … with music. I can’t wait to get back on stage. I can’t wait to get back in front of the cameras and entertain, which is what I do best.”
Martin has been married to the Swedish-Syrian painter Jwan Yosef since 2017, and the couple live in the northern coastal town of Dorado, Puerto Rico, with their two children.
