Iglesias is used to the limelight: She is the daughter of worldwide famous singer Julio Iglesias ans his former wife, the also very famous albeit much less so than Julio, Isabel Preysler. She is the sister of teen pop star Enrique Iglesias and of model and singer Julio Jose Iglesias.
Chabeli appeared in the covers of gossip magazines since she was very young, as the press made the Iglesias family one of their favorite targets. After the kidnapping of her grandfather in 1985, her father decided to move her and her brothers to Miami, where she lived in a posh mansion.
During the 1990s, Iglesias, who is a friend of Cristina Saralegui, made an appearance in Saralegui's show. This was followed by the short-lived television show El Show de Chabeli, which aired on Univision. She married Ricardo Bofil, son of a famous arquitect of the same name. The marriage to Bofil proved disastrous: Soon, much gossip about it showed up on the covers of tabloid magazines, and eventually the marriage succumbed.
In 1999, Iglesias had a life-threatening accident in Los Angeles, requiring hospitalization. The police declared that with the kind of injuries she had, only one out of a million people would survive.
Iglesias remarried, to an American man. Her second marriage has received considerably less press attention. She performs as a journalist in Washington.