Cristiano Ronaldo 'embarrassed' by rape allegations, chance son would hear about case
Cristiano Ronaldo opened up about various aspects of his life in an interview with Piers Morgan airing Tuesday on Good Morning Britain.
The soccer superstar said he felt embarrassed by allegations he raped a woman in Las Vegas in 2009. Ronaldo will not face criminal charges, but there is still a civil case pending.
Ronaldo ‘embarrassed’ by TV coverage of rape case
The Las Vegas police department reopened an investigation in August 2018, nine years after Kathryn Mayorga initially filed a police report claiming Ronaldo forced himself on her and raped her in a Las Vegas hotel. Mayorga was reluctant to name her assaulter at the time, so the department had to drop the case.
It picked it back up last summer when she went to police and sought to have a $375,000 civil settlement she agreed to with Ronaldo voided.
Ronaldo, 34, told Morgan he was embarrassed by having to turn off the TV so his son wouldn’t hear commentators talking “bad about his father about a very bad case.”
‘I felt embarrassed.’
Cristiano Ronaldo opens up to @piersmorgan about the shame he felt when he was accused of rape.
You can watch the full interview on @ITV on Tuesday at 9pm. It’s also available on the ITV Hub.@Cristiano | #RonaldoMeetsPiers | #GMB pic.twitter.com/5gtZN2npYE— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) September 16, 2019
Ronaldo’s full comments in the clip released by Good Morning Britain:
"They play with your dignity. It's hard. 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 speak about 'Cristiano Ronaldo this and that.'
"I listened to my kids coming down the stairs and I changed the channel because I was embarrassed.
"I just changed the channel for Cristiano Jr. not to see that they speak bad about his father about a very bad case. It makes me feel so bad, to be honest.”
The Las Vegas police department announced in July that Ronaldo would not be charged nor prosecuted since the allegations “cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt” a decade later. Ronaldo’s lawyers have said the sex in a casino hotel was consensual and deny it was rape.
Mayorga, 35, filed a civil rape case alleging conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud and seeks unspecified monetary damages greater than $50,000.
Morgan shared through the Good Morning Britain social feed what he thought of interviewing Ronaldo. Their conversation ranged from his sadness over his father missing out on watching his soccer success to meeting his girlfriend in a Gucci store.
‘He’s the biggest star on a planet, a genius footballer, but also a great guy.’@piersmorgan gives us his take on the Cristiano Ronaldo interview.#BehindTheScenes | #GMB pic.twitter.com/d6ShXjG0SE
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) September 16, 2019
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