Cristiano Ronaldo Calls Rape Accusation Against Him "Fake News"

Last Friday, German magazine Der Spiegel published an article in which Kathryn Mayorga provided a detailed account of the night she says Cristiano Ronaldo raped her in 2009. Later that day, Ronaldo responded to Mayorga’s claims in an Instagram Live video, calling her account “fake news” aimed at making her famous by using his name.

Here’s the part of the video where Ronaldo responds to the accusation:

This is what he said:

No, no, no, no, no. What they said today, fake—fake news. You want to promote by my name. It’s normal. They want to be famous to say my name. Yeah, but it’s part of the job, I’m a happy man, and all good.

Mayorga was not Der Spiegel’s source for the documents that originally broke this story over a year ago, and she has maintained her silence for nearly a decade about the incident per the $375,000 out-of-court settlement Ronaldo paid her in 2010. Only now, after feeling empowered by the Me Too movement to come forward, has Mayorga talked publicly about what happened to her.

The full Instagram Live video, which is about 12 minutes long, can be found here. In it, Ronaldo, sitting alone in his hotel room ahead of Juventus’s big match against Napoli, spends most of the time shouting out the fans who are commenting in the chat. He also responds to some of the chatters’ questions, which is how the denial came about.

He starts the video out by saying that he wants to thank his fans for their support. “You’re always on my side, you always support me,” Ronaldo says. “Keep doing like that because it gives me the motivation to carry on with my job, to work properly, stronger, harder. To be the number one. This is the only way.”

Ronaldo’s lawyers have threatened to sue Der Spiegel for the reporting they characterize as “blatantly illegal,” but have yet to do so, either after this article or any of Der Spiegel’s prior reporting on this same story. You can read the entire Der Spiegel article in English here.