Why did it take so long for Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez to get engaged? Portuguese footballer proposes years after rape allegations and media speculation

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Is there ever a right time to propose?
Probably not, but as wise men famously say, only fools rush in, and as many fans across the world will happily testify, Cristiano Ronaldo is no fool.
The Portuguese footballer confirmed his engagement to long-term girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez on Monday evening after proposing with an extravagant diamond ring.
But if Ronaldo's Instagram revelation was a surprise to his millions of fans, it was only because many of them had assumed the couple were already married.
And why wouldn't they? After all, more than a decade has passed since their eyes first met across the well appointed shop floor of a Spanish Gucci store.
At the time Ronaldo was at the peak of his career, an icon for local club Real Madrid and the Portuguese national team, while Rodriguez was a part-time model who supplemented her income as a shop assistant at the high-end boutique, located within the historic boulevards of Madrid's Salamanca.
One could've been forgiven for writing the romance off as a casual fling, but the ensuing ten years have seen it go from strength to strength, and neither have moved to discredit persistent claims of a secret marriage.
Indeed, even Ronaldo has referred to long-term partner Rodriguez as his 'wife' - notably during a recent podcast.
But the events of Monday now confirm the footballer has only just asked for her hand in marriage, which begs the question - why did it take so long?
Perhaps we'll never know the answer, but the last ten years have not been without their fair share of turbulence - both on and off the pitch.
Ronaldo had been Real Madrid's talisman for seven years and was already a father to son Cristiano Jr when he met Rodriguez, but his whirlwind career would see the couple uprooted to northern Italy when he signed for Juventus in 2018.
It was a period of significant change for the couple, with Ronaldo welcoming twins Eva and Mateo via a San Diego based surrogate in June 2017 - just five months before Rodriguez gave birth to their first biological child, daughter Alana Martin.
However the move to Turin took precedence as he adapted to life in a new city and a highly competitive new league after close to a decade in the Spanish capital.
But there would be precious little time to settle, with the family once more on the move in 2021 - this time to England, with Ronaldo making a surprise return to the Premier League and Manchester United.
It was a homecoming of sorts for the Portuguese ace, who had established himself as one of the world's brightest talents during his first, trophy-laden spell with United.
And just months after arriving in Manchester there was joy on a personal front for Ronaldo, with Rodriguez confirming her second pregnancy - this time with her own twins, a boy and a girl.
But the couple were devastated when their male twin tragically died during childbirth the following April - a loss they later described as 'the greatest pain.'
'It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away. It is the greatest pain that any parents can feel,' read an announcement shared by the couple.
'Only the birth of our baby girl gives us the strength to live this moment with some hope and happiness.
'We would like to thank the doctors and nurses for all their expert care and support. We are all devastated at this loss and we kindly ask for privacy at this very difficult time.
'Our baby boy, you are our angel. We will always love you.'
The couple's heartache mirrored a torrid spell in Manchester, with Rodriguez reportedly unable to settle in Lancashire and Ronaldo failing to replicate his earlier successes with United.
Indeed, the footballer's inability to form a cohesive working relationship with then-manager Erik Ten Hag would ultimately lead to his early departure from the club, but not before launching a blistering public attack on the Dutchman during a sit-down interview with Piers Morgan.
Another move beckoned, and a hasty one at that, this time to Saudi Arabia, the arab riches of Riyadh based football club Al Nassr and the rapidly developing Saudi Pro League.
Three years on and the couple appear to be settled in Saudi, where Ronaldo - now 40-years old and well past the age of conventional footballing retirement - recently signed a contract extension worth an incredible £167million-per-year.
Rodriguez has been a constant by Ronaldo's side as his career takes him all over the world
Rodriguez has of course become something of a celebrity in her own right, albeit through association, having launched a hugely successful fly-on-the-wall docuseries with streaming giant Netflix.
But despite the domestic stability it promotes, there has been persistent conjecture surrounding the circumstances and setting in which the couple first met.
Both parties have always maintained they met by chance while Ronaldo was visiting a Gucci store in Madrid, where Rodriguez worked as a sales assistant, but separate sources tell a rather different story.
Appearing on Spanish TV show Fiesta in June, a former friend alleged they really met at famous Madrid nightspot Opium, a venue Rodriguez frequented in the hope of meeting wealthy sportsmen.
According to the friend, Rodriguez 'always had interest in athletes, especially footballers' prior to her initial meeting with Ronaldo.
'If it hadn't been Cristiano, it would've been someone else,' she claimed.
It was an unsubstantiated claim, and one the couple could easily dismiss after weathering a significantly heavier storm in 2018, when Ronaldo faced historic accusations of rape.
But the couple were devastated when their male twin tragically died during childbirth the following April - a loss they later described as 'the greatest pain'
Kathryn Mayorga waived her right to anonymity by alleging the footballer had raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009 before subsequently paying her £375,000 in hush money. Ronaldo has vehemently denied the claims.
Releasing a statement in October 2018, he said: 'I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in.'
Mayorga, a former teacher and model from the Las Vegas area, was 25 when she met Ronaldo at a nightclub in 2009 and went with him and other people to his hotel suite.
She alleged in her lawsuit filed almost a decade later that the star, then 24, sexually assaulted her in a bedroom.
Ronaldo, through his lawyers, maintained the sex was consensual and that the confidentiality agreement reached in 2010 was valid.
In November 2023, a U.S. appeals court sided with Ronaldo, rejecting an appeal by Mayorga's lawyer to force the star to pay millions more than the $375,000 (£299,385) in hush money he originally paid.
Mayorga's lawyer had asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal judge's dismissal of the case in Las Vegas in June 2022 and reopen the civil lawsuit she filed in 2018.
They argued U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey should not have rejected Mayorga's attempts to unseal and make public the confidentiality agreement she signed in 2010 in accepting payments from Ronaldo.
A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appellate court disagreed. It also rejected their argument that the judge abused her discretion by dismissing the case with prejudice, which prevented Mayorga from re-filing the case, and took the unusual step of levying a $335,000 (£267,450) fine against her lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall.
'The district court clearly recognised the gravity of dismissing the case and accordingly provided a thorough analysis, amply supported by factual findings,' Judge Johnnie Rawlinson wrote in a six-page opinion.
In dismissing the case in Nevada, Dorsey sanctioned Stovall for 'bad faith,' saying he had improperly attempted to use documents that were leaked or stolen in a cyberattack to pursue Mayorga's case.
Stovall told the 9th Circuit panel during oral arguments in October that Mayorga wasn't bound by the confidentiality agreement because Ronaldo or his associates violated it before the German news outlet, Der Spiegel, published an article in April 2017 titled 'Cristiano Ronaldo's Secret' based on documents obtained from 'the whistleblower portal Football Leaks.'
Las Vegas police reopened a rape investigation after Mayorga's lawsuit was filed, but Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson decided in 2019 not to pursue criminal charges. He said too much time had passed and evidence failed to show that Mayorga's accusation could be proven to a jury.
Mayorga's lawsuit claimed conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud. By the time Dorsey threw out the case, Stovall claimed Mayorga would receive far more than $25 million (£19.9m) in damages.
The 9th Circuit ruling noted the 2010 settlement 'lay dormant until 2017, when `Football Leaks' released hundreds of documents through a cyber hack of Ronaldo's former attorneys.'
'Despite the settlement and confidentiality agreement between Ronaldo and Mayorga, Stovall sought and used documents from 'Football Leaks' - including those clearly marked attorney-client privileged - to prosecute a new lawsuit on behalf of Mayorga against Ronaldo,' the circuit court said.
Having weathered their fair share of storms, Ronaldo and Rodriguez are now looking ahead to what will likely be an extravagant wedding ceremony.
But will it be another ten years in the making? Only time will tell.