Famed Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has denied an American woman’s allegations that he raped her, threatened her and gave her money to keep her silent in 2009, a German newspaper reported. Ronaldo, in response, sued the newspaper for making such claims.
German news magazine Der Spiegel reports Kathryn Mayorga, 34, was raped by Ronaldo in Las Vegas in 2009 who then paid her $375,000 to keep her quiet and never speak about that night. Her lawyer is currently questioning the validity of that out-of-court settlement in a civil complaint in Nevada.
Ronaldo has denied the allegations and stated that the sex was consensual upto his understanding. However, Mayorga’s lawyer has claimed in a document which narrates Ronaldo’s description of what transpired that night that the footballer is quoted as saying, “She said ‘no’ and ‘stop’ several times.”
As per the Mayorga, following the sex, Ronaldo asked her if she was in pain, “By this time, he’s (…) on his knees. He says the 99 percent thing.” He insisted, Mayorga adds, that he was a “good guy” except for the “one percent.”
“The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold Cristiano Ronaldo responsible within a civil court of law for the injuries he has caused Kathryn Mayorga and the consequences of those injuries,” Mayorga’s lawyer Leslie Mark Stovall told Der Spiegel.
Ronaldo’s lawyer Christian Schertz said in a statement, as reported by news agency Reuters, that the report was “an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy”, and that he would seek legal redress for his client from the magazine.
The agency representing the star footballer did not make any comment on the claims.
Schertz said he would seek compensation from Der Spiegel for “moral damages in an amount corresponding to the gravity of the infringement, which is probably one of the most serious violations of personal rights in recent years.”
In response, Der Spiegel claims they approached Ronaldo and his team but were not provided with a response. “We sent written questions, to which there were no answers. Nobody sued us in connection with earlier Ronaldo reports,” said the Editor-in-Chief.
One and a half year ago, Ronaldo was accused of rape by the same German outlet but has stayed away from any further scandal.
