After being accused of rape – an allegation that has since been dropped – the Portuguese has spoken about how it impacted him
Cristiano Ronaldo says he felt “embarrassed” after being accused of rape.
Kathryn Mayorga claimed Ronaldo raped her in a hotel room in Las Vegas 10 years ago, with German publication Der Spiegel reporting the story last October.
Ronaldo repeatedly denied the accusation and the Clark County District Attorney’s Office announced in July that the Juventus striker would not face charges as they could not “be proven beyond a reasonable doubt”.
According to Der Spiegel , Mayorga first made a complaint of sexual assault in 2009 and subsequently reached an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo. It was claimed by the magazine she was paid $375,000 as part of a privacy agreement, preventing her from going public with the allegations.
The Portuguese, speaking to Piers Morgan in an interview to be aired on ITV on Tuesday, has spoken for the first time about the impact the case has had on his family life.
“They play with your dignity. It’s hard,” said Ronaldo.
“You have a girlfriend, you have a family, you have kids. When they play with your honesty, it’s bad, it’s hard.
“I remember one day I was at home in the living room with my girlfriend watching the television, to see the news and they talk about Cristiano Ronaldo and this and that, I listened to my kids coming down the stairs and I changed the channel because I was embarrassed.
“I felt embarrassed, I just changed the channel for Cristiano Jr not to see that they speak badly about his father, about a very bad case. It makes me feel so bad, to be honest.”
In a revealing interview, Ronaldo also got emotional when shown footage of his late father expressing pride in his son’s progress at Euro 2004.
A man who has gone on to win five Ballons d’Or across spells at Manchester United and Real Madrid, while establishing a standing as an all-time great, said: “I never saw the video. Sorry.
“To be No.1 and he doesn’t see anything… He doesn’t see me win awards, never.
“My family see, my mum, my brothers, even my oldest son, but my father, he didn’t see anything.
“[It means] a lot. I think the interview would be funny, but I didn’t expect to cry. But I never saw these images. I don’t know where you… I have to have these images to show my family.
“But I really don’t know my father 100 per cent. He was a drunk person. I never spoke with him, like a normal conversation. It was hard.”
Ronaldo was just 20 when his father, Jose Dinis Aveiro, died of liver failure having struggled with alcoholism for much of his adult life.
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