Ricky Martin has filed a lawsuit against his nephew, who previously accused him of sexual abuse.
According to TMZ, the "Livin' La Vida Loca" singer is currently seeking $20 million in damages from Dennis Yadiel Sanchez over the latter's alleged attempted to "assassinate" his reputation, which he claims has lost him multiple multimillion dollar deals. Martin also says that he now feels "unsafe" in his native Puerto Rico after being "persecuted, besieged, harassed, stalked and extorted by a maladjusted person," in reference to Sanchez.
Back in July, Sanchez — who is the son of Martin's half-sister — filed a restraining order against the 50-year-old star after accusing him of domestic abuse and incest during their alleged 7-month long romantic relationship. Following their supposed breakup, the 21-year-old claimed that Martin began stalking and harassing him by trying to contact him and showing up at his house.
However, Sanchez later withdrew his allegations and asked for the case to be dropped after the judge presiding over the case did not extend his temporary restraining order. At the time, Martin's attorneys told E! News that "this was never anything more than a troubled individual making false allegations with absolutely nothing to substantiate them," before adding that they were "glad that our client saw justice done and can now move forward with his life and his career."
On the heels of the restraining order being dropped, Martin posted a video message in which he addressed the "painful" claims, which he said were "devastating for me, for my family, for my friends."
"I wouldn’t wish this upon anybody,” he said. “To the person that was claiming this nonsense, I wish him the best and I wish he finds the help so he can start a new life filled with love and truth and joy, and he doesn’t hurt anybody else.”
Despite all this though, Martin's new lawsuit alleges that Sanchez has still been attempting to extort him for money for the past four months by flooding his Instagram DMs with threats of further damage to his reputation, sometimes more than 10 times a day. His complaint also claims that Sanchez shared Martin's phone number on his Instagram and created a fake account on the platform for one of his children. As such, the suit asks for Sanchez to cease all communication with Ricky and his family.
Read TMZ's full report here.
Photo via Getty / Phillip Faraone
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